One Last Chance
by witchINtheMaKiNg
Summary: The Dark Lord was hit by his rebounding killing curse and had to make up for his foolhardiness. He had to choose seven people among the dead. These seven return to life. Will they be accepted with open arms... Full summary inside!
1. Prologue

One Last Chance

**Summary**: The Dark Lord was hit by his rebounding killing curse and had to make up for his foolhardiness. He had to choose seven people among the dead. These seven return to life.  
Will they be accepted with open arms by the Wizarding world or will they reject them? How will these people affect the relationship between Harry and Ginny? How will it affect the Wizarding world in general? Will their presence change anything at all?

**Ratings**: M (due to violence and abuse, otherwise suitable for most readers, you can skip the parts of violence and abuse parts, I'll give fair warnings at the start of the chapters.)

**Ships**: H/G, R/Hr, RL/NT, J/L, SB/OC

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

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**One Last Chance**

**Chapter One: Choosing Seven**

A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them, as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco's wand:

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!"

The bang was like a cannon-blast and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead center of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backwards, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upwards. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hands, staring down at his enemy's shell. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter Thirty Six- The Flaw in the Plan

Voldemort's POV--

I felt something hit me, as I screamed out the killing curse, and then everything went black. _What is happening? No, I cannot be dead. Just knocked out, I suppose. Well, let me wait until one of my Death Eaters revives me._ Then I realized that it was no longer black, but bright mist. I lay in a bright mist, though it was not like mist I had ever experienced before. My surroundings were not hidden by cloudy vapor; rather the cloudy vapor had not yet formed into surroundings. I looked down to see my body and yelped out in surprise. I was laying naked, listening to the silence. I was perfectly alone. I realized that I enjoyed this much better than casting the Cruciatus Curse. Nobody was watching. Nobody else was there. I was not entirely sure that I was there myself.

_  
I need my robes, I feel uncomfortable?_ I had barely thought of that, when I noticed a robe materialize out of thin air, right next to my right arm. I donned the robe and looked around to see what was causing the sudden murmuring that disturbed me. I was beyond shocked to see the prominent feature of my ex-professor and the man I hated the most who also happened to be killed a year before; _Albus Dumbledore. _

"No, this is not possible, you are dead!" I screamed out. _How is this possible? Oh my!? Even the Potters that I killed with my own hands are there and that blood traitor, the Animagus, Black. Where am I_? I also noticed other witches and wizards who had been on the receiving end of my killing curse.

_How are they alive? _

_Am I dead? My Horcruxes were destroyed by Harry Potter._

_  
No, I Lord Voldemort will come back to life, just like Harry Potter did not die twice with my killing curse. The Killing curse I used was meant for Harry Potter, the same curse backfired. So I will come back to life. I think I have to meet these people before I go back._ Suddenly, I noticed that not only the people who were dead because of me, but some people like Dumbledore's sister.

My eyes narrowed onto them. "Where am I Dumbledore?"

"You, Tom are in the Afterlife." Dumbledore answered as though a student voiced a doubt just as the teacher was about to mention it.

"Don't call me Tom! How many times do I have to tell you? That is the name of a common Muggle who happened to be my father."

Suddenly some woman came up to me and slapped me across my face. I was thrown on to the ground.

"Who dares to raise their hand at Lord Voldemort?" I shrieked.

"Your mother; who is ashamed to call you her son. How dare you kill your own father, make Horcruxes and try to rule over the world? How many families have you destroyed Tom? I am disgusted with you."

_  
This was the first time some one had shouted at me. True before my Hogwarts days Mrs. Cole did shout at me, but since Hogwarts, no one has shouted at me or raised their hand at me. I felt humiliated. I tried to shrink away from her._

I lifted my head and saw my mother's face for the first time in my life. Something came over me; I felt a little guilty for doing all I did in my life. I hung my head in shame.

"Where are we Mother?" I asked and was shocked to hear my voice which was neither high pitched nor cold. It was rough and sounded warmer.

"You, son, are in the Afterlife. Here you will be prosecuted by the Gods of Heaven and Hell. Here you will be sentenced to either Hell or… Hell. You do not deserve Heaven." She paused for a breath and as an after thought, added, "This is something like the Common Room. We are all allowed to mingle with one another."

_As my mother spoke, her voice became colder. Why am I feeling so bad, does she not like what I have done? I never used to care. Why is it that all of a sudden I feel horrible? Have I become weak? Is this what Dumbledore clamed is Love? I still don't understand! _

As I was trying to work out what was going on in my head I saw the crowd gathered around me part into two, to give way for someone no taller than an eleven-year-old, but he had a beard, so long, that could put Dumbledore to shame. He was bald. He came up to me and asked:

"Are you Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Marvolo Riddle?"

"Yes, I am," I said, meekly.

He face suddenly broke into a smile. "Well you'll be going to Hell, that is for sure, and the Prophecy that we had given to Sybill has been completed by the boy you marked?"

I looked down. If I answered him then it will show that I have accepted my death. I came to a decision then and there itself. I will try to give up my evil, and prevent all that happened in my life to happen again. I looked into that old man's eyes and found some courage for doing this.

"Yes, Harry Potter killed me."

The silence was broken and all the people gathered burst out laughing. Through the noise I heard some comments.

"What did you expect Voldy?"

"I knew my son had it in him!"

"Ickle Harrykins did that Voldy?"

"Well great things were expected from Harry."

"Wotcher Harry! Keep my son safe."

"My death was no waste! I can live without it."

"Just because you're admitting it now, doesn't mean my godson didn't kill you Tommy Boy!"

Finally that man called the people gathered to silence. He turned to me and asked me to tell the difficulties I, along with my Death Eaters, had caused for Harry Potter. _How do I reply to that?_

I took a deep breath and started.

"When he was one, I killed his parents and put his godfather in Azkaban. This resulted in him having a horrible childhood, I suppose. He was to live with his aunt. His aunt, his mother's sister, hated anything to do with magic. She mistreated him and made sure he had the worst time of his life. When I failed to come back to life when he was eleven years old, I transported him to a graveyard. There I killed his friend and got back a body. After he escaped from me again, I wanted to know the full contents of the prophecy; so I lured him to the Department of Mysteries by showing him that I had captured his godfather. He fell for that trap and came there where my most faithful servant killed his godfather. After that the next killed was Dumbledore. He was very close to the headmaster, I think. He claimed himself as 'Dumbledore's man through and through.' After that, the person I killed which would have affected him was Moody. He was not close to Moody who had died while trying to move him to safety. Stupid Gryffindors. They get guilty for such stupid reasons. Then there was that elf he was attached to. Dobby I think his name was. In the last battle of Hogwarts I killed many of his friends, Snape, Lupin the werewolf and his wife, the daughter of Andromeda Black. I killed as many as I could."

_Did I really do that? How foolish of me._

The whole hall had gone quite. I felt nervous.

_What will happen now? Why did they want to know how I destroyed Harry Potter's life? _The man cleared his throat and told me:

"We have come to a decision and it is that you're to stay in Hell. I also need you to select any seven people that you or your Death Eaters killed. They will be alive once again, until the second death claims them. You will be given an hour's time and within that you need to decide. Do you have any questions?"

I was shocked. I _have to be considerate and send seven people back to life._

"Can I not send myself?"

"No. You can not send yourself or any of your faithful Death Eaters," he said glaring at me.

"Should the person have died in this last battle, or any time in my life?"

"Any time in your life, is fine."

"Why seven?" I felt my blood boil. I _get to die and seven others get to live. That is not fair. One dies then only one should live._

"Well seven because you made seven Horcruxes, and those people must have died because of either your work or the work of the Death Eaters."

I thought for a long time. One thing that was still not answered was why they asked me about Harry Potter? Surely they knew what had happened?

Thinking about Harry Potter, made me realize why I was asked to narrate that story. They had already decided who needs to be sent back to life. They wanted me to tell it out loud. They wanted me to accept my mistakes and face the consequences. True I had destroyed many families but one stood out the most. I had tried to take over the world. _What a foolish thing._ Where was my brain when I was deciding such things? Did dwelling in the Dark Arts become my downfall? Why is it that I was not able to lead a simple life? I could have become the Minister for Magic, if only I had listened to Slughorn. I could have led a simple, content life; instead I choose to go about it the twisted way.

Harry Potter was similar to me. Both parents dead; living with Muggles and yet he is a better man. He gave me a chance, even though he knew there was no hope. I knew what I was supposed to do now. I had to honor the chance Harry Potter had given me. At least in the Afterlife I had to be a better man.

It had not been ten minutes, when I declared I was ready with the names. The man was shocked, but did not say anything else. The remaining bystanders fell quiet.

I cleared my throat. "All those I call, will get the chance to go back to Earth and live your life that I destroyed." I took a deep breath. _Come on! You can do this._ "Lily Potter, James Potter, Nymphadora Lupin--"

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" she screamed hotly, glaring at me.

I continued, ignoring her and the laughter that broke out. I even saw Remus' shoulder shaking with laugher, as he had his head buried in her shoulder. "Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Severus Snape and Fred Weasley."

There was complete silence after I finished. The old man called these seven. They came forward.

"Are you willing to take the second chance?" he asked them.

There was a long pause after which all of them looked at each other and turned to me and then to the old man and nodded their heads.

"It is settled then. You will go to Earth again."

I had to go to Hell. I did not have a choice, but I was allowed in this Common Room!

--END OF Voldemort's POV

A/N: This chapter has been edited recently, that is why there has been no recent updates, working on getting these validated on SIYE and wanting it to be edited. SO I DO HOPE YOU WILL LEAVE A REVIEW IF YOU FIND ANY MISTAKES!


	2. Chapter 2: Relations and Reunions

One Last Chance

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters. **

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**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Two: Relations and Reunions **

Harry Potter, someone claimed to be normal, and not a hero of the Wizarding world, or the Chosen One, or the Boy-Who-Lived, or whatever else they called him those days--he was too tired. It was a waste of time trying to get some sleep. He was exhausted, but something was just not right and he couldn't slumber. The familiar snores of his best mate Ron Weasley didn't reach his ears. It was either because his friend had placed a _Silencing Charm_ around his bed or he couldn't sleep either.

Harry was about to ask his friend if he was awake, when their dormitory door burst open and instinctively both Harry and Ron sat up straight in their bed, holding their wands pointed at the door.

"Hey, it's me," Hermione's voice came from the door. After they had lowered their wands, she took out her own and lit a lamp between Ron and Harry's bed.

"I thought you might be awake. I wasn't falling asleep, and so I thought I'd come to see if you two had gone back to bed." She had come in and sat on Ron's bed leaning against his shoulder.

"Why couldn't you sleep Hermione?" Ron asked her, concern evident in his voice.

She turned around to face him and said, "I don't know. For the first time I feel lost. I do not know what to do after this." There were tears in her eyes that she tried to blink back. She turned away from Ron and faced Harry who was looking for his glasses. She could not hold back her tears; they rolled down her cheeks. "I miss my parents. I wish they were here with me, now. They don't even know who I am now because of the _Memory Charms_ I've placed on them. I'm a horrible daughter." Her voice broke and she began sobbing, pulling her legs to her chest and hugging them.

She couldn't think straight and this was the first time she had broken down in front of 'her boys' as she liked to call them. After living out on the streets for almost a year and not being sure weather or not she'd live to see the next daylight, she was totally lost now. The fact that she had almost lost her best friend as he had to go and give himself to Voldemort to be slaughtered like a lamb didn't help at all.

Ron immediately wrapped her in his arms, and Harry who had got up put on his glasses, crossed over from his bed and sat beside his two best friends. He put a hand on Hermione's shoulder

"You _know_ Hermione you are not a horrible daughter; if you were you wouldn't have done what you did to them to keep them safe, and it is perfectly okay to feel lost." Hary said, consoling his friend as she continued to cry. "I'm feeling the same way right now and I'd love nothing more than to curl up next to someone that has been with me through all of this and cry myself to sleep."

Ron meet Harry's sad gaze, and the green-eyed teenager continued to speak in a soft voice.

"For the most of my life I stayed alone and went to bed alone, but I want and need to be near someone who means a lot to me- just so that I know that tomorrow I need not fear losing them to Voldemort."

He turned away from his friends, looking at the lit candle in between his and Ron's bed. Although he was looking at the flame, he was thinking of one particular person whom he spent all his time while it was his turn to watch the tent at night on the Marauder's map.

"At least," he added as an afterthought, " till I sleep."

Harry didn't want Ron getting into an 'all over-protective brother role'. He knew what he was saying and what he meant to say. Searching his friend's faces, he knew that they too understood.

Hermione extracted herself from Ron's embrace and moved closer to Harry. She turned his face to meet hers and gave him a watery smile; Harry returned it without reluctance. Seeing his hesitant smile Hermione choked on what she wanted to tell him.

"You scared me. When Voldemort announced you were dead, it nearly broke me. I felt that I had lost my younger brother; a brother I was meant to _protect_. It didn't help that Ginny came to me and asked me to tell her it wasn't the truth. I know you told us why you did what you did, Harry, but don't ever die on us again," Hermione told him all the while looking into his eyes.

Ron who had stiffened at the mention of Harry's death said, "Don't you dare run out on me Harry. I know it is not wise words coming from me remembering that I walked away from…"

"You didn't. The locket made you; Voldemort made you. Don't you dare say that you walked away! You were the one who came back," Harry cut in.

Hermione nodded in agreement and pulled both of her boys into a tight embrace.

"Promise me none of us will walk out on each other. Promise me we will be best friends forever no matter what. I know it is not realistic or practical or book- defined or…"

"Hermione, we promise," Ron said with a small laugh. _Hermione going against practical book rules?_ This was a first.

Shaking his head Hermione broke the embrace. "It's better if we head down to the Great Hall, seeing as none of us can sleep? I know we're the only ones in the Tower. Your parents are there, in the Great Hall, Ron, and I know your mother will be worried. Better not to worry her more after…after…" She broke off. She couldn't say the word. Saying it would make all the more real. She looked at Ron; he was staring off into space; he had not heard her. He was thinking about the battle. There were tears in his eyes, which he was trying to hold back.

"You had to walk into the Forbidden Forest to your death, Harry, and you did it. Didn't you think of us?" Ron asked looking outside the window, his voice thick with emotions. "That was the worst I felt, You know, when Voldemort announced that 'Harry Potter was dead', sure I didn't believe him telling that you were running from him, but, when I saw Hagrid carrying your body. I have never felt so…" He couldn't complete that sentence.

"I did think about you guys, and it only made things harder." Harry was recollecting all that he was thinking while walking down to his death. He was angry with Dumbledore and was wondering if death was painful. He was trying not to think about his friends.

"What about Ginny? Didn't you think about her?" Ron asked his voice was barely above a whisper, and Harry could see he was trying in vain to hold back his tears.

"I saw her when I was walking down to him to…um…get myself killed." Hermione and Ron inhaled sharply. "I did almost turn back, but I that knew if I didn't…go down there Voldemort could never be killed, and that would result in only more death. So I walked on."

Harry paused, willing the tears to vanish. "It was not easy. When you guys and Ginny called out my name, all I wanted to do was stand up and shout out that I was alive, but I couldn't. I had to wait."

The three of them fell silent just enjoying that they could be together, and kept going over the fact that Harry was alive and it was finally over. Finally Hermione broke the silence. "You'll be talking to Ginny, right?" she asked Harry.

"Yeah," confirmed Harry, "And I'm not keeping anything from her. She has the right to know everything- but _I_ want to explain...is that okay with you two?"

"You know Harry; you're talking about sharing all our dirty secrets with my sister. I can't decide if it is a good idea or not.But I think you need her to help you get through this- just treat her well and don't hurt her. Although she understood why you broke it off with her, that didn't stop it hurting any less."

"Thanks Ron," Harry said. Neither of them was looking at each other.

"You know you both could give each other a hug."

Both Harry and Ron stared at Hermione when she said this, looking from Harry to Ron.

"Oh don't you look at me like that. I told Ginny long back that my boys can't live with out each other."

"We are not boys Hermione!" Harry exclaimed

"Hey I'm your man!" Ron cried out.

Hermione just pulled them into her arms and said "Right--you are my man Ron and Harry you are my man too…" Here Hermione broke into a grin, "No, Harry will always be a little boy who needs me to look out for him!"

All of them laughed at this, shaking their head. Hermione pecked both of them on their cheek. "Well come on, let's not keep Mrs. Weasley waiting."

"Yeah, let's go." Ron nodded understanding as all three of them quickly sobered. The deaths were too fresh in their minds- their laughter didn't last long. They got dressed silently, pulling clothes out of Hermione small beaded bag, while she waited outside.

None of them could believe what had happened. Remus, Tonks, Fred, Colin and many more had died for the sake of removing the wizarding world from the clutches of the most evil man in Wizarding history.

They headed down to the Common Room and were walking over to the portrait hole, when it banged open. The girl Harry was thinking about came into his view followed by her brother Bill. She gave Harry a tired smile; one that he returned willingly. He walked over to her and pulled her into a tight hug.

He didn't want to let go. He wanted to make sure that she was all right; that she was not just missed getting hit by the _Killing Curse_ . Feeling his anxiety, she held on a little longer, trying to reassure him that she was fine and nothing much had happened to her.

She was also glad that he had not died. She knew in her heart he was not dead. It just wasn't true. Seeing him lying limp in Hagrid's hands had almost broken something in her and she wanted someone to confirm what her heart told her. She had begged Hermione to tell her it wasn't true, but the older girl didn't know what to say.

She gently broke the embrace and pecked him on his cheek trying to tell him that she was there to stay with him. She then turned around to her brother, Ron and best friend, Hermione.

"Mum's calling the three of you down. She wanted me to wake you up if were asleep. She doesn't want her family to go far away from her range of vision," she explained all the while staring at their, as in Ron and Hermione's clasped hands. "Come on you two; is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"Oh yes!" Harry said nodding his head vigorously. "Hermione decided that if she…"

"Harry, you better stop while you can," Hermione said hitting him on his head. "It's my story to tell and I will tell her later. Now let's go before Mrs. Weasley decides she needs to come and find us with the whole Order."

Few minutes later when they were in the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall cornered them and hugged the three of them tightly. "I thought I had failed Lily and James when You-Know-Who announced your death Harry. Don't ever play such games ever again! How could you do that?"

"I'm sorry Professor, but I had to do it. I'll explain later," Harry told her not knowing what else to say. She gave him a gentle smile and nodded her head.

"That means a lot Harry. Thank you. Why don't you go and let Molly check over you?" She regained her composure and walked off to find Kingsley.

"Come on. Mum's calling us," Ron said pulling Hermione's wrist who was in turn tugging at Harry's arm. Ginny and Bill, who had gone to rejoin the other Weasleys, to tell their mum that the three of them were on their way, when they were stopped by Professor McGonagall.

The three of them were pulled into a bone-crushing hug from Mrs. Weasley. She kept saying "Thank Merlin the three of you are all right." She only let go of them when her husband put a hand on her shoulder and asked her to leave the three as they were safe.

One by one all the Weasleys hugged them one after the other expressing their happiness over their safe return. When George hugged Harry expressing the same he had no idea what to say. All he could manage was "I'm sorry. I wish I had gone faster to him and finished him, but I didn't. I'm sorry…"

Tears were rolling down their cheeks. "You know it was not your fault. I'm sure Fred feels the same. He knew what he was getting into. He knew that he may or may not make it out of this battle and still he choose to stand by you, and you did save the rest of us. You didn't die, and that is important. I don't think I could have taken the loss of another brother in the same day."

"Well Harry, I wanted to know if you have eaten anything at all?" Mrs. Weasley started after all of them had seated down. "I also want to know what you have been up to since the wedding."

"Um….Mrs. Weasley, I promised McGonagall that I will share the story with the Order later on when there's a meeting. I hope you don't mind…but I really don't want to repeat it twice," Harry told her, unable to meet her eye. He didn't want to see the disappointment there. It was hard enough, when he was talking to Ron and Hermione, but to try and tell Molly Weasley, the lady-who-wiped-the-floor-with-Bellatrix-for-messing-with-her-daughter; he just could not.

Ginny decided to steer the topic away from Harry's disappearance. She did the only thing she knew would get them off, of Harry's back… "Oh well, it's not the same topic", she concluded once her lips were firmly planted on Harry's.

Taken completely off guard, Harry didn't complain. He did kiss her back. He had missed her so much and it felt good to feel her lips against his. Harry knew it was a bit hesitant. He resisted kissing her with all his might. After all, Fred had died and both of them had by no means forgotten that. Also the fact that Ginny's six…no five older brothers were near by, and not to mention her parents. The kiss itself didn't last long. Ginny broke it off after she felt her mother's resolve to find out what the trio had done had dissolved. She had not counted on her brothers. _Oh, well let's deal with it._

Harry just closed his eyes and hugged her tightly. He didn't want to let go. This kiss had brought back the feeling of how it was to walk down to his death, after seeing Ginny. He had no right to call Cho's kiss wet, when a few tears had escaped his eyes while kissing her.

He took a deep calming breath, ignoring his tears. He was not ashamed to tell anyone that he had missed this redheaded wonder, and had felt scared when she realized he wouldn't be able to see another day. He did not want to remember the feeling when many had fallen in this battle. He decided to face the inevitable…the Weasleys.

Ron, who had noticed the tears, gave him a weak smile, reassuring Harry that it was okay and need not worry. She was with him and that was all that should matter…for now.

Hermione, whose head was resting on Ron's shoulder, was smiling up at the two of them with a small yet tired smile playing at the corners of her lips. Her eyes were bright and glistened in the light from the roof of the Great Hall.

Mrs. Weasley looked ready to burst with wedding plans for them, and she also had tears running down her cheeks. Mr. Weasley looked on at them with a warm look that made Harry feel guilty for what he along with Ron and Hermione had been up to. He had not known where his son was; whether he was alive or dead or cursed beyond recovery.

Charlie looked shocked to see his sister kissing Harry…anyone for that mater. Last he remembered, she was still blushing around him. Definitely not kissing and reducing the boy to tears much less. True, he had heard from his brothers that Ginny had started dating, and had been through two boyfriends, but by the look of things there was something more to that relationship than either let on.

Bill smiled at Ginny; she had always got what she wanted and here she was marking her territory with Harry. Bill had confronted Ginny after he had caught her in tears on Harry's Birthday. He was not surprised to see Harry return the same feelings to which Ginny had confessed.

Percy was reflecting Bill's thoughts. Ginny always got what she wanted once she had made up her mind. He did admire Harry's guts, as his emotions played on his face. He was happy for his sister.

George's face had a look that made Harry very nervous. He had seen those looks before and never wanted to be at the receiving ends of them. It looked similar to the gaze he and Fred had when they were talking to Ginny about Dean, her then boyfriend. They had looked ready to kill Dean. The only thing now was he looked ready to kill him with some new invention of his.

Seeing George made Harry uncomfortably in his seat. He looked up at Ron and Hermione for some sort of support, but all he got was a bunch of laughing Weasleys. Even Ginny was laughing seeing him looking all the more nervous. Then it struck him that George was only pulling his leg. He groaned out loud and started banging his head to the table. He had fallen into the twins'…no, George's game.

Ginny stopped him from breaking his skull and finishing what Voldemort had intended to do. The Weasleys suddenly sobered up when they saw Andromeda Tonks walking up to them with a tiny bundle in her hand. There was a sad smile on her face. When she came to the Weasleys, she gave the bundle to Fleur who was waiting to hold the baby. She sat down next to Harry and looked around the hall. "Where are my daughter and her husband?"

Only then did they realize that no one had told her about their deaths. Harry felt so guilty for not having thought of his godson. He turned to face her. He took in a deep breath to tell her what had happened, but he couldn't speak. How do you explain to a mother that she has lost her daughter and son-in-law on the same day when she had not yet healed from the wound with the death of her husband? He cleared his throat and looked into her eyes. Ginny, sensing his need, put a hand on his shoulder. Andromeda was confused by his behavior.

"Tonks and Remus are…" No he could not do this. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he tried his best to keep them from rolling down his cheeks. Her expression changed.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" she screamed. "Tell me Harry," she shrieked at the top of her voice. "Please tell me they're not dead! Please!" Her voice was barely louder than a whisper as she begged him to tell her it was not true.

"They are," he told her, at last finding his voice, but now unable to keep the tears back. "I'm sorry that I couldn't prevent it, and I know I am to blame." He got up to go away from the people he thought he had caused pain, but he was pulled back down into his seat.

"No, it is not your fault. I know whose fault it is. It is Voldemort and my sweet sister Bellatrix's fault. I knew that from the day Dora married Remus, but that didn't stop her or me from accepting Remus into the family," she told him. "Teddy is your responsibility. Don't go blaming yourself. Teddy needs you." She started sobbing onto Harry's shoulder.

Molly seeing the devastated woman came near her and wrapped the woman in a warm hug. She let go of Harry who looked down staring of into space. She stopped crying in a few minutes, either due to the _calming draught_ Percy had handed her or due to Molly's infamous hugs.

Teddy suddenly started crying. Fleur didn't know what to do as she didn't want to disturb Andromeda. She looked at Harry. Not knowing what to do, he stretched out his arms so that Fleur could place Teddy in his arms. She quickly corrected him as to how to hold the infant properly. Ginny assisted him in rocking the child so that he would stop crying.

He stopped crying when Ginny started making funny noises to keep him quiet. He was looking from Ginny to Harry when suddenly he changed his eye colour to green and hair to sandy brown like that of his father. Harry couldn't help but laugh at this gimmick.

At that moment he realized Moony and Tonks lived on in Teddy, just like Dumbledore had told him once that his father lived on through him. The wounds of the battle will definitely heal, but only with time.

After dinner…breakfast technically…the four tables were vanished and purple squashy sleeping bags were conjured for all. Those who had to wait for the Hogwarts Express the next day had stayed back, although there were very few of them. Most had returned to their homes, escorted by their parents. They had all promised to return for the memorial service, which was to be conducted out of respect for the fallen warriors.

People pulled up the sleeping bags although the sunlight was streaming through the roof of the Great Hall. The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Mrs. Tonks and Teddy, all slept together in one corner. This time Harry could finally sleep.

When Harry got up, it was dusk and the stars were beginning to appear. Next to him Ginny was still asleep, and on the other side Hermione had just opened her eyes. She caught Harry's attention and gave him a short smile, which he returned. George and Ron were awake. A few others such as McGonagall and Kingsley were awake as well.

Seeing Hermione and Harry awake, George called them over to his bedside. They got up and went over to him. Harry could see that George had been crying and so had Ron. Seeing this, Hermione knelt down beside the two brothers and hugged them both. This made George close his eyes and a few more teardrops leaked out. Watching this was one of the hardest things Harry had ever had to do. He never wanted anyone dear to him to die, but he never got what he wanted.

"How do we…I mean…I…?" George was trying to say something, but his tears wouldn't allow him to continue. "I have never been me. It has always been we, us… How am I supposed to be alone now? Fr… Fred. Why did he have to go alone? We promised we'd go together after many years. He wanted to get married to Elizabeth, the muggle girl who stays near The Burrow , but now what do I do? How do I run the joke shop?" He couldn't continue. He was now sobbing on Hermione's shoulder.

This woke up the rest of the Weasleys. Molly, seeing her son cry onto Hermione's shoulder, got up to hug him only to be pulled back down by Arthur. Ron suddenly realized that he has to be there for his brother. He realized that he was needed by his brother.

"You don't have be alone Fred. I'll be with you always. I'll help you run the shop. I'll help you create some new products. After all, our teachers were the Marauders!" Ron said kneeling down beside his brother and Hermione.

That night they sat drinking firewhisky to Fred's memory. Each one was recollecting their best times with Fred, and George kept telling them his dreams and a lot of pranks that Fred was the mastermind. Ginny was the other one who was hurt as much as George if not more. They had all passed out in the Gryffindor Common Room, that night.

The bodies had been moved out into a tent set up on the grounds. McGonagall wanted all of the students who had died buried at Hogwarts, next to Dumbledore. The idea was dismissed as soon as it had come up; they considered it a disrespect to all those who had died and not been students. Finally they agreed to bury the fallen in Hogsmeade.

The following day, after the remaining students had returned on the Hogwarts Express, the Order members and those who had stayed back to help with the rebuilding of Hogwarts, were gathered around in the Great Hall for breakfast. There were only a very few people who had opted to remain. The funerals were to take place at night as that was the time when the battle had taken place. Everyone was returning to Hogsmeade the following evening for the burials.

Only one table was used and the group there was subdued. The mood around the table was no longer full of fun and laughter. There were some conversations, but none of them was loud. Everyone had finished and McGonagall was about to assign various jobs for the gathered people.

She stood up when the oaken front doors banged open. There stood Fred Wesley, Nymphadora and Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, James and Lily Potter.

Harry, George, Andromeda, and Molly all paled and were shivering with pain, anger and hurt. The others had also become pale, but Kingsley was the only one to draw his wand. Mr. Weasley had tears running down his cheeks. It hurt him that he had lost his son and the pain would never go as there would always be a reminder in the form of George.

"Who the hell are you, and why are you impersonating dead friends and family?" Ron screamed. He could not bear to see Harry, George and his mum so shaken up. When the doors had opened he had only seen Fred and Snape, but after he got up he could see all of them. All he could say was "Why? Why dig at the same wounds? They haven't even healed completely!"

Harry who could not take this any more. He started walking up to them. They were…and he was certain…they were Death Eaters Polyjuiced to resemble the people standing there. What he wanted to know was how they got Harry's parents' and Sirius' hair for the potion.

"Please, don't Harry." Ginny was pleading and begging him to stay, and not walk up to his death again. Charlie and Bill were also holding him back.

"Okay I won't go up to them yet, but help me if you want; I am going to hex them into next year." He was breathing heavily. He turned toward them and raised his wand to hex them when Remus threw his wand at him.

"I am not armed and quite honestly I don't want to be at the receiving end of your hexes"

"Yeah, me either," said Fred and threw his wand toward him.

"Or me," said Snape and Sirius together. Both of them were glaring daggers at each other while they threw their wands toward Harry.

"Really?! Now all of you are scared at the receiving ends of three seventeen-year-olds and one sixteen-year? Remus how can you be so scared when your wife is an Auror?" Tonks asked glaring at her husband.

"Yes I am scared of their wands," James said. Lily gave her wand to James, who threw both of them to Harry.

"Oh fine!" Tonks said and threw her wand at Harry.

Lily and James were looking at Harry with tears in their eyes. They couldn't believe that their son was actually standing before them; after trying for almost seventeen years just to touch her son, while they sat watching his life on the screen, in the Common Room. It was the worst during the Christmas break in his first year. They could see what his heart's desires were, but they were helpless.

"Harry, it really is us. You do remember your talk with Dumbledore after the killing curse hit you, right? Something similar happened to Voldemort and because he had made seven of you-know-what, he was punished; required to send seven people he or his Death Eaters had killed back to life. He chose us," Lily explained, her gaze never moving from her son's eyes.

George came up next to Harry and kept his hand on his shoulder. "If you really are Fred tell me, what was the last invention you wanted to bring out into the market?"

"That tiny Snitch that consisted of Harry's photo and it would bust if anyone had the Dark Mark on their arm, stunning them," Fred replied looking straight into Harry's eyes. He saw Harry's face change from seriousness to horror.

"You guys wanted to use my photo? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Harry screamed out. Both Fred and George burst out laughing.

"What did I tell you, Fred? That is exactly how he would react. I think t-shirts with his name and photo would have been better. Would have been a hit with all the girls!" George said as he was walking toward Fred to give him a hug. Tears poring down his cheeks.

"T-SHIRTS? NO WAY! YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR PRODUCTS CHECKED BY ME BEFORE PUT THEM OUT INTO PUBLIC, AND YOU WILL NEVER USE MY PHOTO OR ELSE…"

George who was half way there turned around with a wide grin on his face asked "What Harrykins? Gonna hex us? Stun us, or some things stupid like that?"

Harry had a grin to rival the twins and simply said, "No I'll ask Ginny to help me put an end to that. You are aware of her Bat-Bogey Hex aren't you? She doesn't like other girls wearing t-shirts with me on them." He then turned toward Ginny and put on the most brilliant smile he could. "You would, wouldn't you?"

All the Weasleys were laughing then, forgetting the fact that the dead had returned. Ginny was starring at Harry with amusement in her eyes. "Yes Harry, I'll help you."

Fred cried out "Traitor!" and Ginny burst out laughing as she ran to hug Fred. "It really is you, isn't it?" she asked after she threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

"Yeah it's me. You can't get rid of me that easily!"

"I never want to," Mr. Weasley said. He had his head facing the heavens in silent prayer to the gods who were listening. He was so grateful that his son had come back.

Fred walked up to his mother and hugged her and said, "It really is me Mum. I'm your Freddy!"

"Don't you ever play death on me again!" Mrs. Wesley warned and broke down on Fred's shoulder.

As all the Weasleys were reuniting with Fred, Harry's eye was on that of his parents alone.

"Are you really my parents?" he asked in a voice barely louder that a whisper.

They nodded. He was so stunned that he was not sure what he was supposed to do. Maybe it was the fact that he had accepted their deaths when he had called them with the help of the Resurrection Stone; that he was scared to accept the fact that they were alive.

Ginny nudged him to go over to his parents. He swallowed thickly and turned to look at Ginny. There was support in her eyes for him.

"Come with me. I can't go over there, all alone," Harry pleaded.

"Come on then. I can see Tonks jumping up and down anxious to go and see her son. You should never keep a mother away from her child," she told him gently as she pulled his arm, leading away toward the double doors.

"It's just like back in my sixth year, Ginny. The time I spent with you was like I was living someone else's life. As if I was living in my dreams. I knew it was too good to last long. I'm scared. What if I get attached to them again, and they get killed?" Harry asked her as he took tentative steps toward his parents.

"Harry, death is part of life. You can't escape it. It will come again, but this time make the best effort to do all the things you had wished you could have done with them. Promise me that you will do it?" She had come to halt just short of them, looking deep into Harry's eyes.

"I promise." Harry nodded.

"Go on then; give them all a hug. You learned to hug from the best--my mum," Ginny said pushing him toward his parents.

"Stay here. If this is a dream, I want you to be next to me if I wake up," Harry told her. Turning around he saw he was face-to-face with his father, with his mother's head resting on his shoulder, tears pouring down their cheeks.

His mother stepped forward and engulfed him in a hug which rivalled Mrs. Weasley's.

"I am living in my dreams," he whispered as his mother and father started smothering him with kisses all over his face; tears of happiness pouring down all their cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3:Acceptance

One Last Chance

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

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**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Three: Acceptance**

Sirius was watching his godson approaching them with the love of his life. Whether Harry knew it or not, he wasn't sure. He was a proud godfather. Sirius knew how much his death had affected Harry. _How couldn't it?_ Being the only father-like figure he--Harry had ever had until then. He did feel very guilty for that. He should not have left Harry alone. It had made Sirius cry on Lily's shoulder when he saw Harry run after Bellatrix; to kill her; to avenge his death. He had watched in horror as Harry was possessed by Voldemort. It was the thought of wanting to die to meet Sirius again that had helped him free himself from Voldemort's clutches. He had been truly touched by the attachment his godson had for him.

Severus Snape eyed Harry Potter as he walked toward them with Ginny Weasley leading him; a small reassuring smile graced her face meant only for Harry. He had always seen James Potter in him. Harry Potter did have Lily's eyes, but Snape had been convinced that Harry Potter was just like his father. Snape was not sure why, but it might have been because he, Harry, was the result of the fact that James Potter had taken away the love of his life--Lily. To quench the thirst of his wounded heart, he bullied Harry in his classes, and although he did protect him, he never showed any affection for the boy. No, it was not true that he loathed Harry, but he never could bring himself to show affection or even care for him. He had done all that for Lily. It was his way of grieving.

Seeing Harry Potter during his school days, sitting there, with huge eyes, trying to take in a much as he could all those years back, had been quite a shock to him. Snape had known that he had Lily's eyes, but he had not been prepared to see the exact resemblance between his late enemy and his son. He had been able to ignore the green eyes up until his death.

A near death experience changes the outlook of a person, but death totally alters a person. Death is a place where carefree attitude existed. No hate, no love, no anger, no recent, no remorse, no guilt. It is a place that is void of emotions. Hence, most people associated it to a very calming atmosphere. As soon as you grasp the fact that you are dead, the emotions totally vanish from you. It would feel like it never existed. You become more perceptive of the past and what happened in your lifetime and how your actions affected others knowingly or not.

Until such a time you accept it the emotions slowly ebb away from you, leaving you into something similar to dementor.

Remus saw Harry approaching them. He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Harry had not sent him back to Tonks to help her raise his child. _What a coward he had been._ It was one of the reasons that Remus had chosen Harry to be the godfather of his son. He wondered how his life would have been had Dumbledore not tempted him with the offer of the DADA professorship and the _Wolf's Bane Potion_. He would have lost that chance to meet his one brother who had been falsely accused of having betrayed another brother. The wolf in him had grieved for the loss of all three on the same day for years.

He was grateful to Harry, for giving him that chance, to go back to his wife and help her raise their child.

Tonks also watched as Harry neared them. When she had first met him he had only been the godson of her cousin. Later as she gotten to know him, she realized he was just a normal teenager with a little bit…okay scratch that…the whole weight of the world on his shoulders, and yet Harry always had the air of authority and leadership to him. _Tonks' mother Andromeda was Sirius' 'cousin', there fore he was her 'second cousin' not her uncle._

She had been, and would always be, very grateful to him, when he had sent back her husband Remus to her. She could not have given birth to Teddy without her husband by her side. She had neglected the contraceptive because she knew that she would not be able to convince him otherwise. When Remus had explained what Harry had told him and sent him back, she felt the she owed a life-debt to him. When Remus had suggested that Harry be their son's godfather, she had readily agreed to it.

Everyone who saw the reunion of this broken family had a small smile. Anyone who knew Harry would know that he had always missed his parents. Ever cold, yet a total softy deep within his heart, Severus Snape could feel the emotions rising as he saw Lily hug her little baby boy. The son in question was holding onto her as though his life depended onto it. James Potter had his arms around both of them. He was just hugging them protectively. James vowed to himself he would find other means to protect them. Dying was easy, but seeing his son suffer without parents had been very difficult.

James Potter was so thankful to everyone who had helped Harry, and the first name on his list was Snape. He wasn't sure how to thank a man, whose guts he had hated, from the first day they'd met. How does one man thank another who was in love with HIS wife? Although Lily had made it perfectly clear to James that she did indeed love only him. It wasn't because Severus had called her a mudblood, (and to infuriate him by being his enemy's girl), but she loved him, James Potter for who he was. She always had.

She had looked deep down into Severus' very soul. She had also seen that behind his mask of arrogance as a boy, he had a soft side. He knew she would never tell anyone, not even Sirius that he had been moved while reading a tragic, love novel; because he enjoyed things that would make her smile. Severus had done those small little things for her, to make her forget, for at least a moment that the most dangerous Dark Lord was after her child.

Ginny watched the emotions playing on Harry's face. She could read him like a book. He would rub his scar if he was worried or lost deep in thought. He would rub the back of his neck if he was embarrassed or nervous. The smile he would wear, if he were happy or excited would be so infectious that she felt the whole area around him light up, as though the sun had suddenly realised it was not shining bright enough.

Now, seeing Harry crying on his mother's shoulder, unable to believe that she was alive and standing in front of him, she saw something inside him she had only ever seen once for a brief moment before. Harry was the happiest man alive. He had his family with him; the one thing he had seen in the Mirror of Erised. She had seen him happy during that short relationship they had shared during her fifth year, but she had never seen him so happy and radiant. This made her smile in relief. All his efforts and sacrifice had definitely paid off. He deserved to be happy.

A fierce sense of protectiveness rose in her. She wanted to make sure Harry's parents would never be snatched away from him in such a cruel manner. She had fanaticized about how it would be after Voldemort had been defeated and they all held the same picture in the end, she and Harry would be married happily and have a couple of children, who loved him and gave him the true sense of home.

Ginny always believed in the fact that it is better to be late than never. She would help him create a childhood for himself with his parents although he no longer was a child. He was not even a teen.

Once Harry's sobs subsided, he looked around and was embarrassed to see everyone was staring at him. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose was leaking. His gave his parents a watery smile. Lily pulled his head down and kissed his forehead in such a loving and tender manner that bought fresh tears to his eyes.

"Harry sweetheart, why don't you go and talk to the others? It was a long process for us to come back among the living. We were instructed that none of us will do anything or talk to anyone, without talking and confronting you first. I can see Andromeda bursting in joy, at seeing her daughter back. They'll want to meet the family," Lily told him.

"Go on son," James told his son giving him a slight push. "I promise we'll talk later, and I know for sure that this lovely redhead will be right by your side." He was smiling at Ginny.

"Okay. I think I'll talk to Professor Snape first," Harry said.

If the truth be told he was scared at meeting his mother's unrequited lover who he had despised until after he had died. Harry didn't want that confrontation to take place, but he knew it was inevitable.

He turned to Professor Snape and didn't know what to tell him. What do you say to a man whom you hated and considered a murderer up until the time after his death? How do you tell a man thank you for loving his mother, when his father was standing right there? What could Harry tell Snape?

He opened his mouth several times and shut it not knowing what to say. Finally he managed to small, guilty smile.

"Professor, I'm sorry for acting the way I did after…at the end of the last year. I…" He glanced at his parents. Lily had a smile on her face while James was eying Snape carefully. "I am thankful to you for giving me the truth. You have always looked for my back and I have always thought you were working for the other side." He looked down and sighed. Unconsciously he rubbed his neck. How can he have not seen this? He looked up again into the man's eyes and said, "All I'm trying to say is I'm sorry and I'm thankful to you. I don't think this would have been possible had it not been for you."

"I did it for Lily. I had my guilt to confront me," Snape said, keeping his emotions under tight check. "So you're welcome and I accept your apology. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to talk to Minerva."

He then turned to Lily and said "I'll talk to you later," and walked of toward McGonagall.

Harry watched the man leave. He dreaded it because that would mean he had to face his godfather who had been standing right next to him. He had made his peace with those deaths finally when he had seen them in the Forbidden Forest. He shut his eyes for a second. He could clearly see how Sirius fell into the veil. This was also going to be very difficult for him. It had taken him a long time to accept the fact that Sirius was dead, but now he was alive again. All the pain was in vain. He opened his eyes and saw his godfather waiting for him patiently.

"Sirius, I…I don't know what to say. Oh hell! This is difficult." He looked down, his hand racking through his head, messing his long, unruly hair. When he looked up into Sirius face; he only had a split-second warning before Sirius threw his arms around him and pulled him into a hug. Not knowing what to do, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After he broke the embrace, Sirius looked at him and said "You are going to tell me everything later, even if Ginny is dancing naked in front of you!" With a wink he ran to meet his cousin, Andromeda.

Harry felt like he wanted to hex Sirius and also felt embarrassed that this was said in front of Ginny. He didn't dare look up into Ginny's eyes, sure they had talked about it, but they had not properly become a couple again. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to think about her…at least not about how Ginny looked naked! True he had given it a lot of thought, but to admit it that he had right in front of her, he didn't think he had ever been more embarrassed. His parents were standing right there for Merlin's sake!

What would they say? He did like Ginny a lot, but he did not know if his parent's would like her or not? Would they consider this as him not treating her properly? Was he right in thinking of treating? Was it weather or not they like her, or something like approval? _Oh Merlin!! Please help me. I never had parents before. How do I treat them? Like I treat Mr. and Mrs. Weasley or like the Dursleys or just like my friends? The only thing I know about my parents is the day Voldemort came to kill them. Oh this is going to be pleasant! I don't know anything about what my mum and dad expect me to be or do._

Seeing his discomfort, his father decided that his son need not feel so confused about Sirius' comments. "Hey, Harry, just ignore Padfoot. He tends to be like that. It's in his nature," James said in what he hoped would be a way that would soothe his son and cool him a bit.

Harry turned to his father and looked into his eyes.

"I'll try," he said, and added after a moment's hesitation, "Dad."

His father's eyes widened and there was a huge smile on his face. Anyone who would have seen his father would have thought that his son had said "Daddy" for the first time since he learned to talk.

He then turned to Remus and Tonks. He smiled at them. "Sorry I kept you waiting to meet your son." He did feel bad about it, after all his mother had told him about the instructions they had received to confront him first, before they saw anyone. "Just go see your mum and son, Tonks."

She didn't need to be told twice, she took off towards her son, Remus hot on her heels.

"So Harry, um…what's Ginny like?" his mother asked, she looked just as confused as he was.

"She's great," he told her, not knowing what else to say.

"We know that Harry, but what is it that you feel about her?" Lily asked, patiently.

"Oh, well I'm not really sure, Mum. I do know that she was my last thought as I was hit by the killing curse in the forbidden forest. I need to talk to her first Mum," he replied, watching Ginny bring both Ron and Hermione over to where they were standing.

Their eyes met and he knew he would always need her in his life. She was the woman behind his success, in a very different manner. She wasn't on the front line like Hermione had been, but she had been his driving force. The Marauder's Map had been of great help until Easter, where he watched over her as she sat in the Common Room or the dormitory.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, I am Hermione Granger--Harry's friend," Hermione took the opportunity to introduce herself and her friends, once she came up to Harry's Parents. "This is Ron Weasley, another friend of Harry's. We met in our first year here.

"I am your son's girlfriend, Ginevra Wesley, Mrs. Potter," Ginny said, noticing Hermione's hesitation to introduce her. Then she turned back to Harry with a hard blazing look he had seen before. It meant she would not take him calling her anything other than his girlfriend. _You kissed me in the Common Room the other day, and you sealed your fate Harry. You have no idea just how much I love you and have looked out for you. This talk, you keep referring to won't be just yours, I have so much to tell you too._

Amazingly, he nodded his head with a faint smile, as though he understood her. Lily frowned at this, but it went unnoticed by anyone around them.

"We know who you are; you see we were able to look down on what was happening to the living. We also got updates from Sirius and Professor Dumbledore. We actually saw you kiss Ginny in the Gryffindor Tower Harry. You lost me ten Galleons," James said.

"I told you not to bet on such things. For heaven's sake he's your son, or did you forget that?" demanded Lily, glaring at her husband.

"Aww…come on Lils, it was fun, and I though Harry wouldn't come to his senses until the end of his sixth year. I didn't know he was brave enough to do anything in front of the most protective brother. You saw him pinning over her from the beginning, he just didn't realize," James wined.

"What are you talking about?" Ginny demanded.

"Well Ginny, Harry never really saw any other girl. Since he saved you from the Chamber, he's loved you--he just didn't know about it. He's kept his feelings to himself. When Hermione mentioned about that Corner bloke you went out with, he did feel jealous about it; but he was too stuck up on Cho-Bloody-Chang," James told Ginny, as her eyes widened with each word he spoke. "What the hell did you see in that human hosepipe, Harry?" James demanded of his son, ignoring Ginny's look of surprise and shock.

"JAMES!!" Lily shrieked, "You cannot call anyone a human hosepipe. What will you teach your son??"

Lily's concern however fell on deaf ears as everyone there was laughing, including Harry.

"I'm a bit too old to be thought such things Mum. I am after all seventeen!!" Harry told his mother in what appeared to be a joking manner, but deep within his voice there was some sadness and bitterness hidden. Only his mother and Ginny could see through it. His mother's eyes lost their anger, and turned to him.

"You can never be too old to learn something from your father and me, and I want you to know that. Don't ever forget it." She looked into his wonderful green eyes, although they were hers as well, she had always felt that his eyes were better than hers.

Harry had not expected his mother to read between the lines. He also felt a soft hand reach out and grab his. He knew without looking that it belonged to Ginny. He swallowed thickly and tried to ignore the sting of his eyes. _When did I get so emotional?_

"I hope so," he said softly, his eyes bright. He immediately turned away only to look directly into Ginny's eyes. His widened, and then he looked down. He didn't want anyone to know that at the age of seventeen he wanted his mother and father to tuck him into his bed.

Ginny pulled him towards her. He came silently. "It is okay to want to be tucked into your bed, Harry," Ginny said softly into his ear. Her breath on his ear tingled and yet again he found himself claming and a sense of relief spreading through his body, as he clung onto Ginny. The flowery scent, so uniquely Ginny hit him after such a long time that he lost himself into it.

He was in the arms of the woman he loved, and now he knew what his exact feelings towards her were.

James and Lily Potter watched their sharing a private moment with the young woman who held him close to her heart. They knew without a doubt that she would become their daughter-in-law someday, even if their son didn't. Lily had rested her head on James' shoulder and he had his hand around her waist. Both of them were watching their son silently thanking which ever gods were listening for having spared her from being killed by Bellatrix.

She did suit him the best. Ginny wasn't a Ron or a Hermione for his son. She was someone beyond that. The girl knew him pretty well and had figured him out.

Both Lily and James knew that the relationship between Ginny and Harry was a mature one, and they understood each other perfectly, seeing this with her acceptance to his breakup after Dumbledore's funeral. Although Lily though it was stupid and too noble on her son's part.

They were also extremely comfortable with each other, and able to keep each other smiling, or at least somewhat happy, having seen all the joking banter back and forth in his sixth year. Ginny was also able to shut Harry up and make him understand whenever Ron and Hermione are unable to do so. From their point of view, Ginny had Harry wrapped around her fingers.

"Thank you, Ginny," Harry whispered into her ear, "for being who you are."

She leaned back in his arms so she could cook into his eyes. "No need to thank me, I'll always be there for you."

He kissed her tenderly on her forehead, and then gave her another hug. Ginny had a huge smile on her face. The past years suffering had not been in vane and she knew without a doubt that this was a perfect way for the war to end.

"So, Ginny, tell us how do you feel about Harry," Lily asked her, as James, Ginny and she sat down at the Gryffindor table. Harry was with his godson and Ron and Hermione had disappeared shortly after they had introduced themselves to Harry's parents.

"He is an amazing person Mrs. Potter," Ginny replied.

"Please do call me Lily, and my husband James," Lily requested. "We still feel we're twenty-one years old, not thirty-eight."

"Mum," Harry suddenly appeared by their side, "tell me how you came back to life."

"That's a story for the next Order meeting," James answered his son, and then turned back to Ginny. "What do you like about him?"

"Who?" Harry asked sharply, looking at his father. He still didn't know if his parents liked her or not. He also knew that it was some other guy Ginny liked or anything like that. He trusted her completely and that is what scared him the most about their relationship.

"I'm asking her. You need not know who it is." James waved his hand, trying to shoo his son.

"Don't frighten the girl by asking such questions, James!" Lily was beside herself. Not only was her husband trying to scare Ginny, he was also pushing his son away and she knew it was hurting Harry. "She's meeting us for the first time. I remember how you were when you met my parents." That shut James up immediately.

"Your sister was the one I was terrified of, not your parent's," James countered to Lily after feeling his ego had been hit.

"Yeah right," Lily said rolling her eyes. She then turned to Harry and said, "I know that my sister is in hiding Harry, and I would like to go to her and personally bring her back."

This cold voice of his mother's chilled his heart. All he did was nod in return to it. "I might need some help, but it can wait. For now I need to talk to Sev, so please excuse me. We'll catch up with you; after all we have a lifetime to do so!"

"Can I join you, Lily?" James asked. His eyes had a mad anger in them.

"Sure you can. I need the other two Marauders and Sev also, but to see him, now you can come along. He has to move on in life," Lily said.

"You should know that if someone loves you, it's not possible to move on and accept it. I know it because I have and am having the same experience, although you're not with someone I hate. Be it Snape or Peter, I'll pity him." Saying that, and without glancing back at his wife, he turned around and made his way toward Snape, who was talking to the Malfoys.

Lily watched her husband walk over to her best friend. "That's why I chose you over Sev. You're too noble for your own good." She spoke her thoughts out loud.

"So…you didn't hate dad?" Harry asked hesitantly.

His mother's eyes snapped back to him. "No. I didn't want to admit to myself that I liked him, so I chose to convince myself that he was arrogant," she told him smiling and her eyes flickered over to Ron and Hermione who had just reentered the Great Hall, holding hands. Lily then turned around and walked over to join her husband and Severus.

Lily was sure that James and Severus would be fighting and she'd have to pull them apart. Once she got there she was surprised. James was being quite mature about it. He was asking Severus to join them when they set about trying to get the Dursleys back to their house.

"I'm not so sure about it Potter," Snape replied. "I don't like being escorts to Muggles as foul as Lily's sister and family."

Lily cleared her throat loudly to announce her presence. Both of them turned to acknowledge her presence.

"You know Sev, I really haven't thanked you for what you did for my son. Thank you." She then put her pulled him into a tight embrace.

After she stepped away from him he asked "You really love your husband, don't you?"

She nodded her head, looking up at her husband. _Yes, I love this man._

"Some Gryffindor I made," she said, voicing her thoughts.

"What do you mean Lily?" asked James, who was now standing behind her with his arms round her waist.

"I let my friend down, when he needed me the most," she told him as she started recollecting the events that had taken place so many years before.

"I didn't even get to know him fully." She looked up at Severus with sad eyes. It just pained her that she failed as a friend and that didn't change his mind about how much he loved her.

"It's okay Lily. You're back and you've forgiven me; although that guilt will remain all my life." Severus spoke softly. His voice cracked. He shut his eyes trying in vain to hold back the tears. "I've paid for what I've done." His voice was thick with emotions. "And you are a true Gryffindor because you forgave me and stood up to the Dark Lord for your son's sake. He truly is your son and I don't know why I've never seen him as such. I only saw him as a Potter."

"Well you saw only me in him," James said as he chuckled, "and I can honestly say that you would not have been pleased to see the face of the man who stole your love through _their son_and still be nice to him."

Severus snorted as Lily rolled her eyes at her husband's knack of turning emotional moments into something humorous. He just stated the fact, but the way he said it, was like he was telling a close friend a problem he never realised.

Severus was shaking his head in defeat. "So what did you want to talk about?" he asked Lily, regaining his composure with a small smile on his face. "Your husband told me you wanted to talk to me."

"Yes I did," Lily said. "I need you to get over me and move on with your life. I know you're a much better Potions teacher than you portray yourself to be with your students, and I want you to get back to that. Live your life--date a few witches; have some fun, loosen up a bit and then you can truly move on."

"No, I'm not going to teach if I can help it, and even if I do I won't take Potions. I'll take up Defense against the Dark Arts if I can again. I would prefer that," Severus said as though he was daring Lily to tell him otherwise.

"Way to go! You'll do great Snape!" James complimented before Lily could say anything else.

"You take up Potions Lily. We could finish our book and also you're much better than I will ever be," Severus told her, completely ignoring James' comment.

"Oh I was thinking of the same, but I need my teacher to teach me because I've forgotten everything, having been dead for almost seventeen years," Lily said in the most enticing voice she could manage. Her voice lost it flirtatiousness though when she felt James hand slip under her top and trace circles on her lower back, slowly moving upwards.

"I need a brush-up Sev," she told him. Her breathing had become heavy. She had been dead for seventeen years! _What would you expect?_

"You know Potter, I can see that," Severus said in a disgusted voice and he looked away. "And I'll help you, Lily, with whatever I can."

James immediately drew his hand away and guilt filled him. "I'll leave you to talk," he told them and left before either of them could protest. He had not realised that Snape could see him. He heard his wife's voice and it had been seventeen years since he had been able to hear her like that. He had been unable to resist.

"I'm sorry, Lily," Severus apologized, feeling horrible and guilty, when he saw the hurt and sadness in Lily's eyes as she watched James walk off. "It's just that I couldn't watch such intimate moments of your life with Potter."

"It's okay now, but you need to get used to it. I'm his wife and it has been seventeen years." Lily said in a very pleasant voice.

Severus grimaced and then frowned. "I'll try." He then pulled Lily into a hug.

"I know you will," Lily said, and then in a more cheerful tone she added, "Come on. We'll see if Professor McGonagall will let us teach here, and whether Kingsley has any problems with the dead coming back to life. Also we need to plan something to torment my sister for what she did to my son all his life."

She linked her arm with his and pulled Snape over to Professor McGonagall, chatting nonstop, like old times. Snape shook his head, remembering how much she could talk once she got started.

A/N: It' edited…Hope you enjoy! Please do leave a review.


	4. Chapter 4: Hogwarts can never fall

Continue of chapter four

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

--

**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Four: Hogwarts Can never Fall**

Arthur Weasley was happy to know that he had not lost his son. He was also glad that Harry and Teddy had got back their parents, but what made him the happiest man on earth was the fact that his daughter was happy and not filled with worry about her best friend, her brother and her love. Yes, Arthur knew and accepted the fact that his daughter loved Harry Potter and he doubted that the two of them realized that they love each other. He didn't mind his daughter with another man. What made him accept this fact was that Harry was as much part of the family, as was any of his other sons.

What really made him happy was that Voldemort was no longer there to disrupt their lives. He could live in peace and happiness. He need not worry if he will or not see his one of his sons or wife or daughter tomorrow. The loss of Fred had hit him hard and he never wanted such a thing to happen again. True, he had come back to life but he never wanted to relive the pain he had felt when he realised he would never see Fred again. What had hurt more was the fact that George would have been a constant reminder of Fred.

Molly and Arthur knew that they would have to go to the burrow some time soon and the sooner the better. They had decided that Bill, Arthur, Kingsley, Charlie and the twins go and see the condition of their home after lunch that day. The return of the dead was no doubt a pleasant surprise but it was a huge shock. All their lives they had believed that no one can bring back the dead, and here they were standing, and talking, and helping them rebuild Hogwarts after a huge meal. ("I have not eaten for almost two years," Sirius had claimed.)

They were not sure if the Burrow was in good condition or not. They had to move away from The Burrow after Ron was spotted. They had shifted to Auntie Muriel, after Ron was spotted by the snatches around Easter. They were not sure if the building was standing or was damaged. It had been too dangerous to go near The Burrow.

As the day wore on the arrival of the dead had been accepted graciously by the people who had been there. What posed to be a problem was that the general public of the wizarding world would accept it or not? It had been decided that all these problems were to be put off until after the memorial service. The memorial service was supposed to take place, just after mid-night exactly a week from then.

It was decided as after mid-night as that was the time around which time the major damage to life and property had taken place. It was the time when Harry, Ron and Hermione had arrived to Hogwarts in search of the Horcrux. It would not only honour the memory of the dead, but it would also give all the families that had lost members to grieve for their loved ones and conduct a private funeral.

The Order had arranged for a meeting the following day at the Great Hall in Hogwarts. The physical damage done to the castle, was scheduled to be complete by the end of the day. Although only the Order members and very few DA members had stayed behind it would have been possible. The house elf's were also helping in the rebuilding and Lily had convinced Harry to keep the Elder wand till after the rebuilding.

This was the first time when Harry finally had an argument with his mother. He was against using the elder wand any more than it was already used, claiming one request will lead to another. It had taken Lily very strong and valid points in this argument to convince Harry. She had promised she would gather the required people capable of building very strong wards around Professor Dumbledore's tomb.

Finally Harry had given in claiming that he didn't want to fight with his mother and, she had promised to get help in sealing Professor Dumbledore's tomb such that even they could not open it. Although secretly he did enjoy this as this was his very first argument with his mother and that gave him a warm feeling that his mother viewed him only as son and not Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived or Man-Who-Defeated or The Chosen One.

Lily and Snape were allowed to teach and Slughorn happily retired again. Although, it had not become a widely know fact that the dead had returned, McGonagall had assured Lily and Severs that they could take up the job, after consulting many of the previous headmasters and headmistress.

Kingsley had used his status as Minister for Magic and pushed the Snape's trial to the day following the memorial. The Chief Warlock, had been replaced after Dumbledore's death, hence the Wizzingmot could conduct a full court session for the trials of Death Eaters that had been captured and locked up in the Dungeons of Hogwarts.

Kingsley had taken Harry and Lily's word that Snape indeed was innocent. He had only confesticated Snape's wand, so that other Death Eaters would not ask for the same treatment. Kingsley also made it clear he won't blame or take action against Snape if he found another wand to clean up the mess at Hogwarts.

This had taken Snape by surprise, and he smirked at Kingsley saying Slytherin's do not share their dirty secrets. This comment had lead to the truce between them and then to the very beginning of helping Lily Potter rid her guilt.

McGonagall had taken matters into her hand and had given out orders to all those who had stayed back. All the Order members were present and some members of the D.A were also present. Denise, despite a lot of pleading from his parents had stayed back at Hogwarts to clean up the mess. There had been a loud shouting match between his father and himself. Denise had stood firm, saying that he didn't want Collin to look down upon them and realise that he, Denise, was not helping the D.A but was mourning for Collin and the other D.A members they had lost.

Finally, his father had given in and had been helped to get a room at The Hogs Head to stay at. Mr. Creevey had been devastated by the news of the loss of his elder son and wanted to stay as close to his second son as possible, fearing he might loose him too.

The day had wore on without any incidents. Harry, James, Lily and Ginny had taken to clearing up the mess near the seventh-floor corridor. The Room of Requirement had been consumed by the curse fire, Fiendfyre. It had taken a lot of work to restore it. Although they had the Elder wand, it had not been as easy as the rest of the castle. The House elf's magic had worked wonders. It had restored the castle's structure, although the wards and enchantments around Hogwarts had been affected quite badly.

The Centaurs also had helped. They had been guarding the Dungeons and the Tent where the dead had been laid until the time of burial. Each and everyone who had died in this battle or in this war, and whose body was found, were kept in the tent. The Blood-shed had been a lot and Harry had been devastated when he found out.

Lily, Hermione and James had gone into the Hogwarts library, to see if they could find anything in it that would help restore the Room of Requirement. Harry had even asked the House elf's if they knew anything about the Room.

"We is don't know, sirs and miss," Horky, the main house elf in charge of the cleaning up of the castle for the students, told Harry. "We is not allowed to tell the secrets of the Come and Go room. But if you is allowing us to look, we will see if we is able to help."

The House elf's had looked into it and had been able to extinguish the Fiendfyre, but had been unable to get the Room of Requirement to work as it had once. The patch of wall on the seventh floor which had once been just a patch of wall, now held a door to the entrance of The Room of Hidden Things. The whole room was barren and nothing hidden in it was left, everything had been consumed by the Fiendfyre.

The library, amazingly enough, had not been touched by the battle at Hogwarts. Lily found a hand-written original draft of iHogwarts, a History/i. A lot of accepects of Hogwarts had been discussed in it, which were not found in the iHogwarts, a History/i later editions. It had taken almost four hours before Hermione found the smallest article in that book. It may have been the smallest but it was the most important one.

_**Wards and Enchantments around Hogwarts and her Grounds**_

_It is generally assumed that the enchantments and wards that lie, protecting Hogwarts and her students to be in control of the current Headmaster or Headmistress. While some of the Enchantments may be in control of the current head, the major wards and Enchantments are powered by a secret Room referred to the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room by the house elf's. _

_The House elf's employed at Hogwarts also hold the Anti-disapparition wards. The Room of Requirement also powers The Quill, which enters the name of every Magical Child born, into the Hogwarts Register. The Room of Requirement also is able to provide the exact number of Bed's in each Dormitory, every year. Once a student is Sorted, then the Room of Requirement won't remove the Bed in that particular Dorm for seven years, even if the student chooses not to return once he or she is of Age._

_Although the current Head can control this particular function of Hogwarts, the Castle requires a very valid disturbance for this to happen. _

_If anything were to happen to The Room of Requirement then only the sorting hat can help fix it._

Harry had to put the sorting hat once again in his life, requesting it to help fix the War Signs at Hogwarts. As soon as Harry put it on, he felt as if he were being possessed by the four founders of Hogwarts. He was quite aware of what he was doing. He could not fight this sudden possession and started panicking. When he heard the same voce in his head, when he had first tried on the hat in his first-year.

'Harry Potter, you need to relax. How am I going to heal Hogwarts if you try to fight me off?'

'What are you going to make me do?' Harry asked, his fears and insecurities suddenly surfacing his thoughts. Now that Voldemort had gone, Harry had felt as if there would be no other Dark activities, at least for some time, but here he was, being possessed.

'Do not fear Harry Potter, I will only use the Elder wand and your Phoenix core wand to cast two spell simultaneously. You may not be able to do this on your own, hence I decided to help you out a bit. I'm not possessing you.'

Harry slowly relaxed, and let the Hat take control of himself. He felt his hand dig out the two wands and clutch it in his arms, as he entered the Room. He pointed the two wands to a Rune stone, which he had not seen before and the Hat pushed his magical into his Magical core. It was not painful but the act unnerved him. It was strange to feel his Magic pulsing as if it were the very blood that flowed through out his body.

He felt the Hat pushing it to his limit, and then beyond that. Everything went out of focus. He heard the open and knew someone had entered. He felt someone calling out his name, but he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't see anything but he got the trace of the flowery scent which he usually associated with Ginny before blackness claimed him.

Someone was running their hand through his hair. He liked the feeling of it although he knew it was not Ginny. He knew that Ginny was holding his right hand into her chest, rubbing it lightly. He wondered who was playing with his hair as he felt so at peace.

He opened his eyes only to find that his vision was a blur of red and white. _Hospital wing_, he groaned, catching the attention of the others. Ginny slipped his glasses onto his face. He realised that his mother was running her finger through his hair. His father was sitting in a chair on the other side of the Hospital wing, along with the others.

"How long?" He asked resignedly.

"Few minutes, Harry," Said Ginny, bending down to give him a chaste kiss on his lips. "You did it!" she whispered into his ear, as she buried her face on his neck.

The feel of Ginny's breadth sent a pleasant sensation through out his body. He wrapped his hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him, closing his eyes with a contented sigh.

"After you blacked out, the room of requirement restored it self, that is where you are. I was thing you need the Hospital wing and the room of requirement provided it to me," Ginny continued. "Ron has gone to get Madam Pomfery, he has also gone to tell McGonagall that you have restored the Room of Requirement. Hermione has gone to bring all the people who are being treated by Madam Pomfery here, into this Hospital wing so that she can treat them properly."

Ginny pulled back, the others had crowded around his bed. He wondered what happened and where the Sorting Hat had gone to. He wanted to thank it.

"What happened, Harry?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, what happened? Ginny told us that Xavier told her that you will be fine," Bill informed him.

"Xavier? Who is that?" Harry asked, looking confused at Ginny.

"The Sorting hat, silly. I hit it with the Bat-Bogey Hex as soon as you fell down," Said Ginny, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Unfortunately, he doesn't have a nose, forget bogeys, so he told me that you will be fine and that he would liked to be referred to as Xavier instead of The Sorting Hat. I believe he likes to change is name, every few years."

"oh…" was all Harry could say.

"Well tell us what happened, Harry," Sirius asked, jumping impatiently on the balls of his feet.

"Well uh…I felt as though I was being possessed, but I was quite aware of my senses and I tried fighting it, but the Hat, I mean Xavier told me to relax and he would only use the Elder wand to restore the Room, so I let him." He took a deep breadth and continued, "I…I felt my Magical Core pulsing through my veins, it's the most amazing feeling in the world," A look of pure bliss came over his features, "Then I felt quite drained out and the last thing I remembered was everything around me was blurring and I was losing my vision."

"Your seem fine, let Madam Pomfery look you up and then we'll head down to the Great Hall for the tea before we, head out to Hogsmeade for the burial of Collin, I promised Denise I'd be there for him." Ginny had turned away when Fred said this, Collin had been a great friend to her back in her first year. She had also seen him drop dead. He had intercepted a curse that was meant for her. He was bleeding and she could do nothing to stop it. She had watched on helplessly, as the life faded from his eyes.

His last words had been, "Hope Harry finishes them and comes back to you, Ginny."

She had tried not to remember that, but now that his funeral was in few hours, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She had driven him out of her mind, lost in Fred's death. His return had made her so happy that she had forgotten about Collin.

Madam Pomfery had arrived and checked over Harry, she healed most of his wounds. She was unable to heal the oval shaped burn kind of a mark at the centre of his chest or the Slytherin's Locket mark. Hermione on seeing the burnt patch of skin, in an oval shape burst into tears, sobbing hard onto Molly's shoulder, while Ron sat down heavily onto a chair, staring at that wound. There were tears leaking from his eyes but he sat staring at it without blinking his eye.

Harry and adamantly refused to answer what these marks were to Madam Pomfery, who had huffed that she won't be able to cure it, if he didn't tell them what it was.

"They can't be cured, Poppy," Lily had stated, softly, staring at her son's scars. "They will stay that way for life. It's nothing to worry about. It doesn't hurt him." She absently rubbed her heart while James rubbed his chest.

Harry turned grateful eyes onto his parents, silently mirroring some sort of understanding between them.

"Hermione," Harry called out softly, "Please come here."

She broke free from Molly, and her sobs had subsided but there were tears still running down her cheeks and her nose was also leaking. She conjured herself a kerchief and blew her nose onto it, not bothering to wipe her tears she sat down carefully next to him.

Harry, lifted her hand and made her touch the wound, "It doesn't hurt. Not anymore. It was like an ironhanded punch, but not anymore." He let her remover her hand and turn away. "Look at me Hermione, please," he pleaded.

She shut her eyes tightly for a second letting her tears drop and turned to face him as she opened her eyes. "This," he said, pointing at the scar, "is just a reminder a mark, of what we faced the past year. It won't go and I never want to forget what happened this year. This will always remind me why you are like a sister to me, why Ron is like a brother and why Ginny is the reason that I'm here with you today."

"I don't ever want you to remember how I got it, but I want you to remember why I was willing to get it."

Hermione broke into fresh sobs as she buried her head in his shoulder. Harry was feeling quite uncomfortable as Hermione was crying onto his shirtless chest. He was patting her back trying to soothe her, but he turned a helpless eye towards Ron who, although was crying had a faint smirk on his face trying to tell him 'you got this onto your self, who asked you to get all emotional with her?'

Lily saved Harry from further embarrassing himself, by nudging Ron to take Hermione and console her.

"Holey pass me some potatoes."

"Please Fred I don't want to be called Holey by everyone."

"Then you should not have told us you were holey!"

Harry cracked a smile hearing Fred and George's banter. He knew they were trying to lighten the mood around them, but it was not working.

The Order was currently sitting in the Gryffindor table, huddled close to each other. The D.A was also sitting close by. It was the time for the funerals to take place and no one was in a mood to do anything. The D.A was unusually quite. They had lost many members and a lot of classmates were also dead.

The Order members were also exceptionally quite. Many of them had lost relatives and fellow Order members were killed in this battle. The school as a whole was very subdued, more so than it had been before Dumbledore's funeral.

The dead were laid in a tent on the grounds so that they can rest for one last time on the soil the lost their lives fighting for the cause for a better tomorrow.

All the bodies were to be carried from Hogwarts to the cemetery in Hogsmeade, that was about a mile walk from the Gates of Hogwarts.

A there were so many dead and many bodies recovered from the depths of Malfoy Manor a well as various other buildings around Britain. It had been rough on Remus, Andromeda, Sirius and Tonks when they were supposed to recognise Ted Tonks body. They had found him relatively easy, but the shock was that his body was a mass of dried blood and flesh. His lungs were protruding from his broken ribs and one of his kidney's was pushed into his stomach. His face was perfect, no damage at all, except the look of extreme pain. It looked as if there was a preservation charm set on him. His right leg was broken at the knee and his left leg was just bone, the flesh was not present. His right thigh had the words 'Bella will never forgive traitors', written in blood.

Needless to say, Andromeda and Tonks had gone into shock and the _iCalming Draught/i_ didn't help. Andromeda went into a shell and stared off into space, not even crying. Madam Pomfery had to force down her throat a Dreamless sleep portion. She had refused to talk or even react when Narcissa had come over to help her.

Andromeda had looked into her eyes and then blinked once, her face emotionless, her eyes dead, and she had gone back to staring into space.

The Dreamless portion helped her come to terms that she had lost her husband and she had shed tears. It was a testament how the loss she had felt when she had realised that she had lost everyone except her grandchild that she mourned for her husband and rejoiced for the return of her daughter and son-in-law, that she put everything behind her and looked forward to spend days as a grandma.

She was a strong women, she had gone against her family's wishes and married Ted and she had been torn when her sisters had refused to speak to her. She had brunt the hate then, she could so it now. Ted had been always by her side, but now there was another Ted in the form of her Grandson.

The funerals took all evening. McGonagall, Kingsley, The Weasleys and Potters all insisted that they were present for all the Funerals. There were so many dead that it was well into the night when they returned to the Gryffindor tower, for some rest. No one was in any mood to eat food.

Ginny had been unable to stop crying after Collin's funeral. It had taken a toll on her and she had crumbled into a heap on one of the armchairs in the Common room and cried herself to sleep. She had not allowed anyone to go near her. The memorial was to take place the following morning in the Great Hall, where Voldemort had died.

Tom Riddle's body was also Buried in the Hogsmeade graveyard, on Harry's insistence.

"He was a human being, and I even put a mark on Dobby's grave. He may have gone twisted but he also did have a mother who was ready to postpone her death after his birth. He was once loved. His death eaters were wrong but did follow him all the same."

Harry had stood his ground and said that it would be better if they gave Tom Riddle a respectful funeral. "Don't mourn him, I'm not asking you to, all I'm asking you to do is leave some space in the graveyard so that he also can be buried. Let's not put a marker, but let us not discard his body as it were the dirt on the sole of your feet. That would make no difference between him and us."

So the Order members and D.A had stayed a little longer to burry Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort.

The following day, a subdued group of people came pouring out of the Gryffindor tower, dressed in plane black robes. They made their way down seven floors to the Great Hall, There was a huge podium erected instead of the High Table and the four tables were missing, instead there were rows and rows of chairs. Behind the stage was a huge black cloth hung, with the names of all those who had died in this second war. The names were hand written in white colour ink by the family members.

Kingsley, McGonagall and Snape disguised as some Muggle were seated on the stage. The Great Hall filled in quietly. There was no air of cheerfulness that was usually accompanied by the students when they filled in for the breakfast or dinner or lunch.

McGonagall stood up and the few who were whispering came to a sudden halt. McGonagall's eyes were red and puffy, she had been crying and was evident that she was still crying.

"I wish that this was a happier time, but alas that is not so. He-Who-..." She smiled slightly, and took a deep breadth and looked directly into Harry's eyes and continued, "Lord Voldemort also know as Tom Riddle, can no longer plunge our world into darkness." She ignored the grasps of horror from the assembled crowd and swept her eyes across the whole Hall.

"We are gathered here to mourn for those who gave their lives so that we could stand here today and look for a brighter tomorrow. I would love to ask each and everyone of you, those who lost someone dear to your heart, in this war, to come up and tell the world how that person could have made a difference had they been alive; but they won't like it. They gave their lives for us. They would want us to look for the brighter day, and remember their essence of life."

"Small things that made them who they were, incidents you could never forget because they made it so, their infectious laughter, their smile, their love for you, and I could go on, but they chose this and today I'm sure they are all very happy, where ever they are."

McGonagall had fresh tears in her eyes and she gave everyone a week, sad smile. "It's not easy to live without them, but birth and death is part of life. Once someone is born they die one day. It's only a physical thing, because the dead we loved ever truly never leave us. We will always recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble or great happiness. They are always fond inside us in some form or the other."

McGonagall gave a week chuckle, "Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak!" She gave an un-lady like snort and was over come with laughter which turned into sobs, as she sat down next to Kingsley over come with grief.

Harry was also laughing and so were most of the students who had heard that. There were a bitter sweet memories that everyone were recollecting. McGonagall's sobs were controlled as she stood up once again, "All of us have lost someone, be it a friend or a brother or a sister or a parent, all of us at least have so many out here to share our grief."

She looked around, trying to see how many were missing, trying to count the number of students who were not there today. "Always remember, share your grief and it halves, share your happiness and it doubles."

She looked around once again and said, "I request all of you stand up and observe a moments silence for the dead."

As everyone stood up, Harry looked in the front row where the Weasley's sat, his eyes were focused on one particular red-head. She would be his home, he felt he owed it to everyone who had died that this is what he was supposed to do. Live on, live with the memories of those who had died but not be obsessed with them. Let them be a part of your heart but not to let them take over it.

Lunch that day was more pleasant, the Great Hall was filled with parents, teachers and students all alike. No one had announced the return of the dead as yet. They wanted things to quite down a bit and then break the break the news to the public, gently.

Harry was seated between his mother and Ginny, opposite him sat Ron and Hermione. The Weasleys, Potters (disguised heavily), Blacks, Lupins and Snape were seated closely.

They ate in comfortable silence remembering the five minutes they had observed silence for the dead. Kingsley was busy with the ministry rebuilding and was there. Arthur had chosen to go in later along with Percy and Charlie.

Harry was watching Ginny out the corner of his eyes, as he ate. Ginny noticing this turned to him and gave him a small smile. He turned to face her, "Ginny, I want to talk to you about everything today, after lunch, will you-" he left his spoon and took her left hand, "Will you come with me for a walk round the Lake after a visit to Hagrid with Ron and Hermione?"

"Sure, Harry. I'd love to," Ginny replied, giving his had a squeeze, and then she turned back to her food.

"Harry, do you mind if James and I join you?" His mother asked, overhearing him. "We would like to meet Hagrid, it's been almost seventeen years since the last time we saw him."

"Sure, mum."

"Harry," said Hermione. "You go ahead. I need to do something, and Ron and I will join you at his hut."

Soon after lunch everyone left with brighter sprits, but the Order members and a few D.A members stayed back, to finish up the rebuilding of the Astronomy tower. Harry set down towards Hagrid's hut to help him fix it, as well as to meet him.

Harry, Ginny, Lily and James headed to Hagrid's hut. Lily and James were a few steps ahead of the other couple.

As they were walking down to Hagrid's hut in comfortable silence, Ginny turned toward Harry

.

"What?" He asked coming to a halt in front of her.

She gave him a smile and stepped closer to give him a hug. Harry put his hands around her waist and pulled her closer.

"I'm really glad you are not dead Harry. It was the worst thing ever."

"I know, it was difficult for me to act I was dead when I could hear your cry. All I wanted to do was get up and tell you I was fine. But I had to wait. Nagini was not yet killed."

"Why ever did you have to wait for that snake to be killed for?"

"I was hoping I could tell all that to you today after we met up with Hagrid."

Ginny broke the embrace to look into her eyes. She had felt him tense up. The expression on his face was 'I want to tell you, just bare with me till then.' She smile up at him and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Well come on then," She said tugging on his hands. "Don't you want to meet Hagrid and help him also?" She took his hand in hers and pulled him towards Hagrid's hut.

Lily and James were already inside the Hut and by the look of things, Hagrid had managed to repair the damage to his hut.

The door was left open for them and they could smell the boiling tea.

A/N: Sorry I deleted this by mistake and I had to re-update it. Also, please ignore the mistakes, Em- my wonderful beta is a lil busy at the moment and so am I, so my updates won't be very frequent. This is not edited, so I hope you enjoy it. Once it is edited I will repost this chapter!

Do leave a rewiew!


	5. Chapter 5: Bitter Truth

The funerals took all evening

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

--

**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Five: Bitter Truth **

As soon as they entered Hagrid's hut, Hagrid just pulled Harry into a bone-crushing (literally) hug.

"Just don't make me do that ever again. I don't want to ever carry your dead body."

Finally he let go of him to allow him to massage his bones. Ginny was trying very hard to keep from laughing as was Lily and James. When he scowled at them Ginny whispered into his ear "You got it onto yourself by getting killed."

"Have some tea 'arry. I won't let you go till you do, even you Ginny." He was moving around the kitchen making tea for the three of them. 

"Where are Ron and Hermione? I've never seen the three of you apart unless Ron is fighting with Hermione," He asked Harry as he was moving around his kitchen making tea.

"They said they have some work and will join us in here in a bit," Ginny replied, as Harry was busy fighting off Fang who had missed Harry so much that Harry found himself tackled to the ground, trying to fend the over affectionate dog.

"Back Fang, leave Harry alone," Hagrid barked, as he handed them their tea.

The five of them were chatting about anything but the battle and Voldemort, as they were drinking tea. Once they had finished tea and the talk was approaching Voldemort Harry decided he could not stay. He wanted to wait for Ron and Hermione, but his talk with Ginny was more important and his first priority.

He got up and pulled Ginny up along with him, seeing this James and Lily also got up.

"Hagrid if you don't mind I need to talk to Ginny about something and I had promised her I'll do it soon, so I'll be heading out."

"It's okay 'arry. And I suppose you're also going Lily, James." He asked turning to them.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind Hagrid," Lily said in a small voice.

"It's no problem," Hagrid waved them off. "But do come and visit me before you leave." 

The four of them headed out together and Harry was heading towards the lake.

"Um... Mum, dad, Ginny and I will be heading towards the lake." He hesitated before he added, "You can join me if you want, but I suppose you'll know all I have to tell her."

"Go ahead Harry, we won't follow you. But we are also headed towards the lake for a walk. If we come across you, we'll turn around and not disturb you guys." His father told him, giving him a small wink.

Harry led Ginny to a place which was secluded and the lake was visible. Harry sat down on the grass and patted the vacant space next to him indicating that Ginny should join him there. Both of them were quite for some time watching the lake. They didn't realise that Severus Snape was sitting on the grass hidden from their view by a bush, but at an audible distance, or that Lily and James had indeed followed them and were sitting on the other side of the tree.

"I do know that you know something Ginny," said Harry. "You're not the one to keep quite and sit around waiting for me to give you answers. I want to know what you know, so that I know from where I have to start." Severus had become very alert hearing the voices. Having been a spy for so many years, habits die hard. He was listening intently.

Ginny sighed heavily. "Okay you've caught me. I do know more than you think. I'd get it out of Hermione often. She would tell me things that were not quite important, still something a secret. She never told me about your lessons with Dumbledore or that prophesy. She was quite determined about me not knowing that. I knew Sirius was not a murderer and you had helped him escape. I also knew that the fake Moody helped you with your Tri-Wizard. I knew every moment of you fourth year and fifth year. Sirius let me in on many of your secrets, like you had visited him in your fourth year. I didn't know about that."

She was quite for a while staring at the smooth lake and thinking what else she knew. Harry didn't disturb her instead was seeing the lake wondering how much she tried in vane in finding out his secrets last year.

"I tried a lot to find out what you were up to," said Ginny. "And then I realized if you wanted you would never let any one know about anything. When ever I did eavesdrop, all I could hear was buzzing sound. You need to teach me that spell, it can be handy." She said shaking her head, her eyes narrowed onto him when she noticed Harry was grinning at her.

"That is the Muffliato spell. You remember the Half blood Prince's potions book?" She nodded "Well that was actually Snape's and he had made that nick name for himself. He created that spell."

"What a name and why be proud of being half-blood when he was working for Voldemort?" Ginny asked him, turning around so that she could face him and sit in a more comfortable position.

"Well his father was a muggle and his mother was Eline Prince, a witch so he named him self Half-Blood Prince." Harry explained.

"Oh! Something like Voldemort himself. Lord Voldemort or Tom Marvolo Riddle" She snorted out in disgust, "both of them ashamed of their parents." Ginny voiced this not realizing that Snape had gone rigid with the comparison being made.

"Yeah even I thought of that but there is difference here," said Harry, voicing his regret. "He loved my mother and her death made him change sides. He rectified his mistakes. He needs to be given credit for that. If it weren't for him I don't want to imagine what would have happened here, at Hogwarts last year. He protected the students from the Carrows as much as he could."

Snape had relaxed hearing his words and could not help but feel if what would have happened if he had not changed sided if not for Lily.

"So will you tell me what else you know?" Harry asked Ginny.

"Yeah, well I knew that the prophet was right after that slip of your tongue when you had come to the Burrow. So I decided to ask Hermione how the DA Galleons worked so that we could restart the DA. I knew Neville and Luna would help me. I was underage and I didn't want to sit around and not try to win this war. I wanted to help in whatever way possible. Either I would come with you or I would go Hogwarts and cause trouble for Snape."

She was quite for some time thinking about haw tough the last year was. "I troubled him as much possible. I was irritated with him." Ginny said. "I chose to blame your break-up with me, on him. Had he not killed Dumbledore, may be we would have been together."

"I know it is silly," Ginny burst out seeing Harry open his mouth. "I accepted it, and everything, but I just had to blame someone." She shook her head, she knew she had been childish, but she had been desperate. There was no news about Harry or her brother or her best friend.

"This past year was scary," Ginny sighed, shaking her head trying to put aside unpleasant memories. "When we went to steel the sword for you, Dumbledore spoke to me. He told me that everything is not how it looks. I didn't understand what he said then, but I did when Snape pulled me out of class just before Easter and told me that my parents wanted me home for the break. I had refused to go, but he had thrown a portkey into my hand and I was at the Burrow, last time I saw it, before we left for Aunt Murle's."

"Ron was spotted with you a few days after that.," said Ginny, her voice trembling. "I was so scared when I heard that, I think it was the first time I cried due to the lack of information. I was so damn annoyed with everything."

"After I landed at home I realized what Dumbledore had told me. I thought in some wired way he had asked Snape to kill him so that he could protect the students of Hogwarts. I don't know why but I felt Snape was not given enough credit for what he had done."

She stayed quite for some time allowing Harry to contemplate what she had told and also thinking what else she knew. Finally she sighed out. "I guess that is about all I know. Now will you tell me what you've hidden from me and if the Elder wand really exists." Harry was about to open his mouth when she added "Oh and what are Horcruxes? I heard you talking about that with Voldemort."

Both of them had not realized but Snape had gone chalk white on hearing the word Horcruxes. He had not paid attention to the battle and instead was looking for Lily in the common room. Once Voldemort had come into the common room he had cornered Lily and was talking to her not listening to a word of what Voldemort was telling. Suddenly he felt used by Dumbledore. He had not told him about them. Why? Had he been so untrustworthy?

Harry's eyes darkened for a moment. "Well I will tell all that, until then you need to bear with me. Okay?"

"Alright, but can I ask you questions?" She asked childishly.

Harry chuckled. "I guess you can."

"Oh, well here is my first question. Do Ron and Hermione know all of what you are going to tell me?" Ginny asked unable to keep her curiosity any longer.

"They may not know tiny detail I might tell you." Harry told her, to which he got a kiss on his cheek.

"Get a move on and tell me all you've got, I'm all ears now." She told him as she repositioned her self to sit in a more comfortable position.

"Well you know after watching Cedric die and Voldemort come back to life in my fourth year, I-"

"If you don't mind me asking Harry," she cut though his explanation in a very polite way.

When he nodded she continued, "What exactly happened in the maze and the graveyard?"

"Well I've not talked about the details with any one, but Dumbledore and Sirius, and I guess it is high time I did." He sighed out trying to remember all that happened on that dreadful night Voldemort returned.

"You don't have to I'll understand." Said Ginny unable to look at the pain that filled his beautiful green eyes.

"No Ginny, I need to tell you. I think you should know." He told her. "It is painful but not as much as it was when it was fresh in my mind. I've been through worse but…" He trailed off not knowing how to tell her in words that watching Voldemort return and seeing the first death in his life feels, much better than all the other things he had witnessed over the last year.

Ginny noticed the confusion he was facing, "It doesn't matter Harry, you won't be disrespecting Cedric's memory if you feel that his death was a lot less painful that of Sirius or Dumbledore."

He gave her a grateful smile and put his hand on her shoulder bringing her closer to him. Ginny obliged to this and put her hand around his waist. She couldn't help but wonder if he would be this emotional through out his tale. True he had witnessed deaths but she had no idea what she could do to comfort him. Is it even possible for him to live with the pain and get over the guilt? Is it wise on her part to help him forget that pain or has it become a part of him that he'll have to live all his life? Will he be able to move on in life now that his parents are back?

"You see Ginny after we, that is Cedric and I entered the maze we both ended up near the cup at the same time." He had a look of distaste and guilt, "Cedric tried to make me take it but he was closer and my ankle was not alright, and he was closer so I told him to take it, but he refused, so we took it together."

"We were thrown into some new place. First we thought it was part of the Tournament so we pulled out our wands. We saw someone coming near us and we weren't sure what to do, what if that man approaching us was a muggle. Then my scar burst into pain and then I heard Voldemort's voice. He told 'Kill the spare'" Harry's voice broke and emotions of that dreadful night rushed back into his mind.

He cleared his throat, "Wormtail who was there, carrying Voldemort did as instructed and Cedric…" He could not continue. He had started of with ease and kept ignoring the emotions churning through him but not any more. Even after four years he could not believe Cedric was dead. He could not prevent the hot tears falling into his lap. He felt horrible.

"I could not believe that he was dead even after I saw his body," He continued ignoring his tears. "Wormtail, then pulled me and tied me to Tom Riddle Senior's head stone. I was gagged and my wand had fallen when I had fallen down due to the pain in my scar. I was helpless. I wish I could've done something about it then, but I could not," He knew he sounded helpless and like a child denied his candy, but he didn't care and he knew Ginny wouldn't mind either.

"Wormtail then went away to bring a huge cauldron. He left behind Voldemort's body. It was the size of an infant but the face was like his actual face, pale white, red eyes, slits for nostrils and a slightly elongated neck."

Harry shivered remembering that face. "Wormtail came back and he lit a fire under the cauldron. He then put that body of Voldemort into it and removed the bone of his father, flesh of a servant willingly given and blood of an enemy. He took my blood. Then I was hoping Voldemort had drowned and the various colours coming from the cauldron would alert the muggle police, but that didn't happen. The next thing I knew was Voldemort was standing there in front of me. He had a body of his own."

"He pulled out Wormtail's hand and summoned his death eater. After they came he was talking about how disappointed he was because his death eaters had failed him and how he could not stand that. He put some under the _iCruciatus Curse/i_. Then he gave Wormtail a silver hand and asked him to free me. I was given back my wand and made to bow before the duel. He struck me with the _iCruciatus Curse/i_ almost immediately. That curse is no joke and as far as I'm concerned no one should be hit by that curse."

He shivered, tightening his hold on Ginny remembering that even Hermione had been subjected to the same a few weeks back. Ginny let him hold onto her as she laid her head on his chest. She didn't want to tell him that she had also been subjected to that curse the past year. She wanted to put it off. She didn't want to remember it.

Snape who had been listening to this let his emotions go. He felt sorry that he was subjected to the curse when he so young. He also sympathized and agreed that no one should be subjected too that curse. No one deserves it, except may be Voldemort and Bellatrix and her husband and his brother and Yaxley and_…iOh well a lot of people do deserve it./i_

Those who deserved Azkaban, had already been shipped away and the Dementors were once again under the ministry's control, but that didn't stop Kingsley from using muggle methods to reinforce security. So that no one will escape and every one will be given a trial. Even the Lestrange's were to be given a fair trial.

"I didn't mind the curse then because he was taunting me and telling me that my father was brave and stood up to his death and I was hiding behind the stone." He was recollecting how it had been then.

"I found that place and I hid, but that didn't mean I didn't want to die or I was scared." He was trying to reassure himself as much as he was trying to reassure Ginny. "I knew I would die that day but I wanted to take down as many death eaters as possible. I don't know…" He was trying to convince himself he didn't mean any harm. He wanted to revenge Cedric's death. He didn't deserve to die because it was his fault. He made Cedric take the cup with him, and Cedric had to face the consequence of his action. True only now he understood what Dumbledore had told him in his third year, after Professor Lupin had retired.

The words Dumbledore had used were still very clear in his mind. "The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is very difficult business indeed... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that." He voiced this to Ginny and she immediately hugged him tighter.

"It's not your fault. Even his parents don't think it was. If he had not died like that, the giant spider would have killed him. At least it was painless and was over soon for him."

"I know but it still hurts-"

"If the pain didn't exist you would not be who you are Harry. It is okay to feel pain and hurt and guilt, Harry, or else there would be no difference between you and Voldemort. But you ought to control it. You can not let it rule you."

"Yeah, I know that but I feel that it should have been me, not him, it was meant for me."

"NO, NOT YOU. NEVER YOU. NO I WON'T HAVE IT." She screamed out clutching to Harry as if her life was dependent on it. Harry realizing what he had told was a BIG mistake held onto her assuring her that he was still there.

"Hearing your scream when you thought I had died, was torture. No _Cruciatus Curse_ can be that painful," Harry recalled.

He was trying to recollect how he had felt when he had heard Ron, Hermione and Ginny scream in aguish. All he wanted to do was call out that he was alive and not dead, but he had to wait or else he would've surely died.

Ginny pulled her self back together, to keep her self from remembering what had happened when she has seen his dead body at Voldemort's feet. No, she would not go over there.

Harry was alive and holding her in his arm. "You were telling me about Cedric. Continue Harry." She told him softly trying to tell him that she was okay and she didn't want Harry to skip events.

She remembered that Professor Dumbledore had told her that acceptance is the first step to recovery and to accept one has to understand. He had told her that when he had visited her in the Hospital wing after the Chamber incident.

"Well you know I was stuck at the Dursley's and I had no idea what Voldemort was up to and no one was telling me anything through letters. Then the dementors attacked and I was expelled and there was a hearing and I was getting to know my godfather better and living in his house how much ever he hated it. Did you know he had run away from that house at the age of sixteen?" He didn't wait for her answer.

"He went to my grandparent's house. It is really sad that he was locked up in Azkaban for 13 years of his life and then in that house till he died. He didn't deserve that. It's pretty good of Voldemort to have given him a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance. We are humans and making mistakes is in our nature."

"I hated it in the Dursley's house. I could not get anything about Voldemort. When the dementors attacked I thought they were already under Riddle's control." He gave out a nasty laugh. "I should have realized that all of that a game being played by the ministry. After all they are just like the muggle politicians. All they want is power and money, just in a different way from Voldemort." Ginny watched his eyes harden and became cold and distant.

"Even if it is thrust into my hand I don't want to be popular. It is a head ache. But that does not mean I like people talking ill about me or calling me a lunatic. I had no clue of the so called prophesy. I didn't even know why Voldemort attacked me that night."

"I had of course asked Professor Dumbledore about it, you know, when I woke up in the hospital wing after I saved the Philosophers stone in my first year. But he had told me that he would tell me when I was older. I guess I never asked him again."

"You know the vision I had and how we'd run to help Sirius?" He continued when she nodded, "After Voldemort possessed me, and Dumbledore sent me back to his office, he told me or rather showed me the contents of the prophesy."

"The one with the power to vanquish the- Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …"

"A very simple prophecy, yet a huge one, it changed my life and lost time won't come back but I got back my parents."

Harry fell quite collecting his thoughts, a lot of things were messed up in his mind and longed for a pensive. Ginny was staring at the lake wondering how he was actually feeling. If it was one thing Ginny understood, it was the fact that it is not easy to describe one's feeling. She had not known how to tell her parents, how she was feeling after her first year at Hogwarts. She had no idea how to let them know that she was not a small girl anymore. That she did not like dolls dressed in pink any more.

It was not until she had told Ron that she had changed a lot that her family accepted who she was now. Ron had been so nice to her after her first year and she had thought the same would continue after school began, but Harry had to tell him something and she was pushed away.

She did not blame Harry but she had hoped Ron would be close to her. After all it was only he who had helped her parents realize that she was a teenager way before she turned 13. No wonder he was so protective of her.

"You know Gin, I wish I had no prophesy concerning me or my parents to have died protecting me, but you know what, I wouldn't be whom I am if not for that. You won't be my girlfriend." He picked up her hand gently and kissed her knuckles. He held her hand in his and close to his chest.

"You know I think I had fallen for you when I was in my fifth year itself…or maybe right after I pulled you out of the Chamber. What really hit home that I like you was in fifth year, I suppose. It was…I guess odd that you were not shy around me and that is when I felt oh…. I don't know maybe bad is the right word, that you didn't like me anymore. True I liked Cho then but I don't suppose I had any feelings for her, just my hormones acting up a bit," he told her distastefully.

Ginny snorted and punched him in the gut lightly, "Blaming on the Hormones, eh?"

Harry ignored her, "I remember Hermione telling me that you had gotten over me and that you were going out with Corner, I didn't like it and I just brushed it of telling myself that it probably is some stupid thing, like I had to look out for you…or may be it was me being a little jealous that you no longer liked me. Then Hermione mentioned Cho and I completely forgot about that. I made myself forget about that. Ron was and is after all my best friend"

She was staring at him and he found it disturbing so he turned to face her and raised his eyebrow questing her, what the problem was? "You liked me since then and you didn't know what you felt so you just ignored it?"

"Uh…" Harry stammered.

"It's okay Harry tell me the truth." She told him softly.

"I guess. I only just remembered that. I don't know why but something in my stomach… I don't know I guess I had no idea what I was feeling."

"Oh. So you had to wait for me?" she asked with a smirk on her face and a tone in her voice that clearly stated that she was having fun at his expense.

"Yeah." Harry admitted not realizing her tone or her smirk.

"I'm glad Harry." Is all she replied as she rested her head on his shoulder indicating that he needs to continue his story.

Taken of guard Harry settled to the best conclusion he could draw, no matter who the girl is, he will never understand them. Especially if she was fiery, impetuous, spunky, devious, and much, much more.

"So any way Professor Dumbledore wanted to meet him during school for some lessons. He wanted to show me memories of various people who knew Voldemort and you know his background and things like that so that it would help me defeat him. We viewed a lot of memories from various people and well…All I can say is he was evil since childhood. He always enjoyed being in control of everything and those who didn't listen to him were punished. I think the first spell he learnt was the _Cruciatus Curse.._

"You see as he lived in a muggle orphanage. Professor Dumbledore was the one who went to get him and help him with shopping and things like that. When he got there, Dumbledore realised that something was not right with him. He questions the head of the orphanage… I'm not sure of her name, any way she tells Dumbledore that Riddle is rude and many strange things has happened around him and to people he doesn't like or have angered him."

"Dumbledore became curious and conjured some mead and prompted her to tell what the strange things were. She said with certainty that he was the reason behind the fact that two children in the orphanage are not the same any more. Riddle put those two into something horrifying that those kids were never the same. He snatched their childhood even when he was a child himself."

Ginny had gone pale and had held onto Harry so hard that her firm grasp, hurt him quite a bit. When Harry stared at her, she looked into his eyes. There was something Harry had never seen before. A mad sort of thrill etched deep with in the pools of brown, and at the same time disgust and self-loathing. Harry frowned, trying to recall what he told that made her hate her self.

"I know what her did to those kid," She whispered. "I just remembered as you were telling me. I thought he was gone forever, but NO! HE HAS TO HAUNT ME. HE IS STILL IN ME. HE HAS LEFT HIS MEMORIES IN ME. WHY?! WHY? I…" her voice broke and she let out a sob, she had been trying to hide. She collapsed on to Harry. Repeating the same questions of 'why?'.

Harry, not knowing what to do, pulled her onto his lap, cradling her as if she were a small girl who had just gotten up from her nightmare, and wanted to cheek under her bed for the monsters.

"I had thought he had left me. I had thought that after you stabbed the diary, he was gone. I only had nightmares to deal with. The nightmares also stopped after a little while. I though I can look forward to a better future. I always believed that when something bad happens, and if we try hard enough to search for good, we will find good. I always believed that if I tried harder, I get what I'm looking for."

"With that attitude I took up my second year. I had for a short while in Egypt, didn't want to get back to school. I wanted to stay with my brother in Egypt. He promised he will never let anything happen to me again. So I though it would be better if I stayed with him. He was the one who talked me out of it."

"He told me running from my demons was not a Weasley thing. Not something a person in Gryffindor would do. Then he told me that only silly girls who are not strong enough run away from pain. I think that is what stung more than anything else. I've always wanted to be like my brothers. I never wanted to show any weakness just because I'm a girl."

"I decided he was right and I then listened to my parents. They told me that what happened in the past will always remain there. It can't and won't come into the present or future. I need to put aside the fact that I'm different and accept that with a big smile. They told me that I need to 'make my self'. I didn't really understand that back then, but I think I did once I got back to school."

"Ron may have convince my parents that I'm no longer a child, but I didn't understand what I was? I was quite lost. I didn't know if I could be happy with myself ever again. Then I realised I can't be what I was before I started Hogwarts, but I can be something different. You see the diary a dark object, was contaminated. It gave off waves off evil and negative thoughts. It played with my insecurities."

"After that was destroyed, the thing suddenly stopped. Like how the light goes off my wand if I say iNoxi/. So I felt a lot better. But just as you were telling me about that, some part of Riddle's memory clicked in my head and I felt..." She shuddered violently and Harry held her tighter. "I felt as though I was Riddle. I remembered those kids. They were telling him that they were scared of the cave as it was very dark in there and they were scared of the dark."

"They cried out for him to stop, but he never did. Not until he felt bored with what he heard. He wanted them to make another sound of pain. He wanted to create music with the cry of pain. He then made a vow to himself to make sure he will return to that cave. He wanted that first memory of seeing people suffer etched within the rocks in the cave. He wanted to make a memorial out of it."

"He had this horrible habit of collecting mementos, to remind himself what he had caused and to make sure he never forgets that note of the cry. It was like music to his ears. I can feel his twisted happiness. I had thought it was gone, but I guess it never will. There will always be a part of him in me."

She clung tightly to Harry, silently asking him to cleanse her from the dirt and filth she carried. Harry shut his eyes tightly, wondering not for the first time, how she managed, what broke Ron within a matter of weeks, for a year. He needed to explain the whole thing to her before she could understand what had happened to her.

He adjusted her on his lap such that her face was buried in his neck, covered by his hair and her legs fell rested on the ground to his right.

"Ginny," when she didn't respond he gently broke the hug so that she could look into his eyes. She avoided his eyes, she had never wanted him to see her so week. She had always taken pride of the fact that she was a strong woman and she didn't easily dissolve into tears.

"Look into my eye," He told her gently but firmly. She shut her eye for a second longer than necessary, and then looked into his emerald eyes. Her eyes carried guilt and shame. "I want you to listen to what I have to say completely and then you can tell me if he is still in you?"

Ginny had not expected this. Frankly she had not expected anything that might calm or reassure her, but her curiosity kicked in and she pushed aside what she had just remembered. She nodded uncertainly, making Harry smile at her.

"Let me just skip to the main part?" She just nodded.

"Well through this lessons with Dumbledore I learned that Riddle had created something called a Horcrux. This made him immortal as long as the Horcrux existed. A Horcrux a part of one's soul that is separated from the main body when he or she must perform an inexplicable evil, purposefully commit murder with all intentions of splitting the soul. That part of the soul that splits from the main body is let to live outside the body in an object. So, if their body is attacked or destroyed they can't die because part of their soul is still out there somewhere. It's still on the earth and it's undamaged because it wasn't inside of the body when the body was attacked."

"And Riddle had one of these?" Ginny asked her face etched with Horror.

Harry laughed a hallow, mirthless laugh, shaking his head. "Not one Ginny, he had indented to create seven including the bit in his body."

"I was possessed by one of his horcrux, wasn't I?" Ginny looked revolted by the idea that even a bit of his soul was so twisted. She looked down at her hands, studying them, as though it may turn into Voldemort's spider-like-hands. She shook her head in horror and turned away promptly from Harry only to throw up near his feet.

A/N: I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I get these edited and repost it. I know it's been like forever. On the good note, only work left on this story is typing out the last 18 chapters! I know every last detail that should be in them…and it is also written down on paper. I type when ever I'm free, so don't curse me too much, if the updates are not frequent.

Thanks for the amazing reviews I've been receiving, please keep them coming!

Do review, criticisms and praises are always welcome!


	6. Chapter 6: Tell me the tale

Chapter Six: Tell Me The Tale

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

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**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Six: Tell Me The Tale**

Harry started rubbing her back, easing her after she had thrown up, conjuring a glass of water not taking heed to that fact that he had not uttered a word or having used the Elder Wand for this.

Ginny gulped down the water, as Harry cleared away her sickness. "You have been hunting for them, right? So that you can kill him. He is finally dead and so I don't really have a part of him in me? That is what you are trying to tell me?" Ginny asked, getting excited.

He nodded.

Tom Riddle was not in her. Never was after Harry destroyed that diary. All the snippets of memories were what Riddle had given her during his possessions of her. Just like she remembered what had been missing from her memory, this was just something like that. This delighted her to no end and she could only think of one way to thank Harry for clearing her self doubt, and she did thank him rather passionately.

After Ginny finished her thanking, she asked him if that was he was supposed to learn from the lessons, why did he have to go to Dumbledore's office so often?

"There were a lot of memories leading up to why he created these. Like the history of why he turned so twisted and evil. Why he didn't allow himself to make room for friends and Love?"

"So you can write up a biography of him?" Ginny asked half-heartedly.

"Yeah…I think I can." Was all Harry could tell her.

She fell silent, debating with herself, whether or not she will be able to handle his life story?

"Tell me about it." Ginny finally stated, making up her mind that she would be strong for Harry. She knew if she was finding it hard to accept, then her Harry will probably find it harder.

"Are you sure you want to hear about it today?" Harry asked her, he didn't want to put this on her, he was not sure how she would react, he didn't want her to be upset over it.

"Yeah," Ginny said. "I want to, I have to. I need to let go. It's been so long and I don't want it to hurt me anymore than it already has." She was referring to the diary as well as this war.

She settled herself in his lap a little too comfortably for Harry to think straight. Shaking his head, to clear away thoughts that could delay what he wanted to tell her, he continued.

"Tom Riddle was a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin. He was a half-blood, you see. The Gaunt family was the last of the Slytherin's decedents. Marvolo Gaunt had two children, Morfin and Merope. They lived in a little ramshackle shack on a heavily wooded hill side, just above the small town of Little Hangleton."

"Do you mean to tell me that Tom Riddle is really a direct descendent?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"Yeah," Harry nodded.

"Strange," She muttered.

"Why do you think that is strange?" Harry asked her.

"Well, I know he was the last parselmouth," Ginny said "but I think he would have flaunted that fact had he know it. He is that kind of a person."

"If you put it that way then, yeah, he would have," Harry reasoned. "But he wanted to keep his history a secret. He did not want people to know that. Only Professor Dumbledore knew he could talk to snakes."

"When did he tell Dumbledore?" Ginny asked.

"When Dumbledore went to pick him up from the orphanage." Harry answered, promptly.

"So, Riddle was Merope's son?" Ginny hesitated. She knew how the Slytherine Purebloods were, and this was the question of a direct Slytherine descendent being a half blood.

"Yeah," Harry said, he knew she was able to draw the conclusions. She was quite smart. She may not be a Hermione, but she knew what she had to.

"How did the Gaunt's take that news?" Ginny asked, ready for the worst answer.

"They didn't know about it." Harry told her.

"How can't they know about such a thing?" Ginny asked, her left-eyebrow raised.

"Merope lusted after the Village's rich boy. She was abused at home by her father, due to which she was almost a squib." Harry said.

"How original?" Ginny muttered, making Harry laugh out loud.

Seeing him laugh, Ginny smiled. "The damsel being abused wants a hero in the shining knight, who is not accepted by her family."

Harry snorted, "Yeah, well she was not like you was she? She wanted her hero to save her, but her hero did not know that she even existed."

"Then she should have poisoned her brothers mind to befriend him, she would have been rescued by her hero then, with a sword, after killing the big bad monster."

Harry looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Forget I said that," she muttered.

"Ginny," he warned.

"All right, I know, but sometimes I do remember that incident."

"You should not forget it, but don't compare your self to Merope for heavens sake," Harry said, scowling at her reference to her first year. "And as far as I can remember, you did not poison your brothers mind."

"Tell me the whole bloody thing fast," She said, impatiently.

"Well Morfin, was not found of any Muggles just like his father, so he had hexed some Muggle in the village and he had to attend a summoning. He had not, so in the memory I saw, had a Law enforcement Officer trying to convince Morfin to attend the summoning."

"He refused to attend and along with his father, they tried to resist the Law Enforcers. More Law Enforcers arrived over powered both Morfin and Marvolo."

"Marvolo got a sentence for six months while Morfin got three years."

"Grabbing onto her chance, Merope made a run for it. She either used a love portion or the _Imperius Curse_ on Tom Riddle, the village guy she loved. They were married shortly after that, she continued giving him love portions."

"She stopped giving him the portion when she realised she was pregnant. He did not wait for her reasons or anything of that sort. He left her, although she was pregnant. She did not have money, but she had the locket, Slytherine's locket."

"She sold it in London, at Borin and Burks, where they paid her only ten Galleons for it. She ended up at the orphanage, gave birth and named him Tom Marvolo Riddle. She told the people at the orphanage that he was named after his father and grandfather. She also hoped that he would look like his father. She died shortly after that."

"Why did she not leave instructions to the orphanage about the child's father. Where he lived and who he was," Ginny asked. "She could have told them to hand over her child to his father."

"Would have saved us some problems," She muttered under her breadth. Only Harry heard it.

"Yeah, it would have," Harry agreed, whole heartedly. "but I guess she did not want to see him ever after what he did. She was probably hurt and angry by what he did, least he could have done was supported her till she had the child."

"Why did Dumbledore show you this stuff?" Ginny asked, genuinely curious.

"Well he said it was to help me understand his past, and he said it might help me survive." Harry told her, recollect the very same question he had asked Dumbledore.

"Anyway, the next memory I saw was Dumbledore delivering Riddle's Hogwarts letter. While Dumbledore was talking to the head their at the Orphanage, he discovered that Riddle was a bully in the orphanage."

"When Dumbledore spoke to him, he was rude and very demanding. Dumbledore realised that Riddle liked to collect trophies. He was a bully and he liked to keep mementos of those he bullied. He also did not like his name 'Tom', as it was a very common name."

"Another thing that Dumbledore noticed was the fact that he accepted that he was a wizard without any fuss. He immediately told Dumbledore that 'he always knew he was special'. He also told Dumbledore that he suspected that his father must have been a wizard as if his mother was a witch she would not have died, when she could do magic."

"He said something like 'My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died.' He also confessed that he uses his special ability to make people do whatever he wants them to do. He used to frighten fellow orphan mates."

"He once made a rabbit strangle itself," Ginny said so quietly that Harry almost missed it. "He enjoyed doing it. He felt very great about himself for it."

She had gone pale, "It's never going to leave me, Harry."

"The sufferings of this was is not going to leave me either, why don't we help each other make better memories?" Harry suggested, pulling her closers and hugging her tightly.

"I'll take you up on that," Ginny whispered, her heart was bursting with joy. She knew he would never make blank promises.

"Are you sure you want me to continue?" He asked her, he was not sure she could handle any more such memories.

"Yes, I am"

"All right then, where was I…Ah, yeah, well Riddle is quite self-sufficient, secretive and apparently friendless by the age of eleven. He did not want help or companionship. He never changed. Not even at his dying moment. He had never wanted a friend."

"Once in Hogwarts, he was sorted into Slytherine and most of the teachers pitied him, they felt bad from him, as he was from an orphanage. He also was obsessed in finding his parentage, when he realised they was no wizard named Tom Riddle, he unwillingly concluded that his mother must have been a witch."

"He started to search for 'Marvolo', and sure enough he found his answers. So in the summer before his sixth year, he left the orphanage in search of his family. It led him to the Gaunt Shack. Marvolo was dead when he went there, but Morfin, his uncle, was alive."

"Morfin was confused by his appearance and thought it was Tom Riddle Senior. So he approached him with a wand and a knife, ready to attack him. But Voldemort told him to stop in Parseltounge. The shock of hearing Parseltounge makes Morfin stop."

"In that shack, Voldemort realised that Morfin was his uncle and that his mother had fancied a Muggle by the name of Tom Riddle, who stayed in the Bungalow up hill."

"He stuns his uncle…"

"And frames him for the murders he commits. He kills his father and his fathers parents, doesn't he?" Ginny asked. No doubt she had remembered another memory.

"Yeah," Harry, whispered. "Ginny, I don't think…"

"You don't have to think Harry," She told him sharply. "I can handle it. I'm not a weak."

"I know your not weak. You are one of the strongest person I've ever known," Harry said. "It's just that I don't want this to affect you when you should be happy that your family is safe."

"It won't, I know you will be with me," She told him softly.

"You don't have to be strong with me or in front of me," Harry said. "If you want to cry, I understand. Don't try to act as though this is not affecting you, when it is killing you from inside. You feel you knew all of this but you had shut it out of your mind, that your feeling guilty about shutting it out Give me more credit than that, I know you better than that."

"Harry," Ginny sighed. "I know, you do know me quite well and curse you for that! Please just tell me the whole thing, Harry. I want to know, and I know you want it out of your system too."

"All right," Harry sighed in defeat. "Voldemort also steals the ring, which was also a family heirloom from his uncle."

"Does he turn that into a Horcrux?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, he does, but I'm not sure when he hid it the shack."

"So you got hold of that last year and destroyed it?" Ginny asked.

"No, I did not," Harry said, making it quite clear something had gone wrong at that time. "Professor Dumbledore destroyed it. That was the reason his had had blackened and that was the reason he died."

"What do you mean?" Ginny enquired.

"I'll get to it, don't worry," he said warily.

"Why do I get the feeling you did not like what happened to you, and you feel you were manipulated? But you still admire and respect who manipulated you?"

"Ginny," Harry began in a voice like that of Hermione when she got a doubt in class. "Are you very sure that you do not know Legilemens?

"Absolutely," Ginny told him, unabashedly.

He chuckled, "Of course you don't."

"Anyway," He continued. "Those are the two Horcruxes. The third one was the Hefelphuf's cup, Slytherine's Locket, the one Merope sold at Borin and Brukes. A witch names Hephazebit Smith had bought it and Riddle killed her to get these two artefacts."

"The Revenclaw's trinket that he had collected and converted into a horcrux was--"

"The Lost Diadem," Ginny exclaimed, exited by the fact that she knew what he was doing when he had wanted to see in the Revenclaw's common room. "That is what you were searching for, and that is why you came to Hogwarts. Well it's not lost anymore, I presume?"

"No," Harry muttered dryly.

"Well there we go, we have all seven! The Cup, The Diadem, The Locket, The Ring, The Diary, The Snake, Nagini, and the bit remaining in his body?"

Harry could see the wheels of her brain turning as her face was screwed up in concentration. Her eyes suddenly went wide and she breadth out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"No," She looked into his eyes. "That is why to went there, looking for him?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I was the seventh Horcrux, he unknowingly created. He had only meant to kill me and Dad that night, not mum. So when mum stepped in the way of the killing curse meant for me, a part of his soul was blasted apart from the whole and latched itself to the only living soul left in the collapsed building, me."

"Also, mum had died in hopes to protect me and that acted as a shield for me, he could not touch me. So for as long as I lived, he would be alive."

"He took my blood believing it would strengthen him. He took into his body a tiny part of the enchantment my mother laid upon me when she died for me. His body kept her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survived, so did I and so did Voldemort's one last hope for himself."

Suddenly Ginny stood up towering over Harry, "Lie down and take that shirt off!" She commanded.

"Wh…what?" Harry spluttered, confusedly.

"You heard me, take the bloody shirt off!" Ginny shrieked. "I'm not seducing you here, TAKE IT OFF OR I WILL RIP IT OFF," She threatened.

Harry obeyed her and took off his shirt, not that he had any choice.

Seeing the scars on his chest, Ginny's eyes clouded with worry and her eyes stung. She knelt down and ran her cool finger over his wounds. Harry shut his eyes when he felt her touching his wounds.

His eyes snapped open when he felt cold drops of water fall on his chest. Ginny eyes were watering. "You did this for us?" she questioned with out taking her eyes off his scars.

"I was supposed to do it," He told her weakly.

"No, you had a choice and chose to do this," she muttered.

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "When you put it that way, yes I chose to do it. Although I can't really say that, Dumbledore--"

"Dumbledore did not force you, he gave you a choice and you chose to accept it," Ginny reasoned it out for him. "You could have run away, but you chose not to."

There was a huge silence, even the wind and the lake seemed to have frozen. "Why?" she chocked out. "Why did you do it? Why did you not go to Hermione? She would have come up with another solution."

"There was no time, Ginny," He told her gently, as he picked himself of the ground and pulled his shirt back on. He then proceeded and pulled her onto his lap.

"It's over and let us put the past in the past and move forward. It won't be easy, but we have to learn to do it. We need to be able to do it."

"Look at it in this way; so many died in this war. They gave their lives so that we could live, for that we need to live, with their memories close to heart. We should not let their sacrifice go in vane."

Ginny looked up at him with the same fierce determination he had seen the day he had kissed her in the common room or on the day of Dumbledore's funeral.

"I…" She cleared her throat and continued. "I'm sure last year was not easy. Do tell me about it. You still have to tell me about the Deathly Hallows, but before that, where were you the night Dumbledore died?"

"Oh," Harry sighed. "Well Dumbledore had promised me that he would take me out to retrieve the Horcrux, if he found one. That was the night I found out Snape was the Death-Eater who had blurted out the Prophecy to Voldemort."

"What I did not know was that Snape loved mum, still does, from the time he realised she was a witch. You see they were neighbours. He was the one who told her that she was a witch."

"Once he realised that Voldemort might go after me to kill the boy who might be able to kill him, Snape realised his mistake. He knew that mum would die, but he did not want her dead, so he came to Dumbledore for help."

"That is why Dumbledore trusted him so much. Dumbledore has taken his word after mum's death that he, Snape, would help protect me from Voldemort. Although he hated dad, he did it for mum."

"So," Ginny asked, feeling his discomfort. "Did you and Dumbledore find the Horcrux?"

"Yes, and no," Harry told her, as he shifted her on his lap, so that she was resting on one leg alone.

"The place we went to was correct, but the Horcrux had already been removed from there. I though Dumbledore took the potion in vane, but the truth is he was dieing from the time he had removed the Ring."

"Snape had trapped the curse into his hand, that is why they looked dead. Snape had also told Dumbledore that he only had one year to live, the curse would spread and he would eventually die."

"So Dumbledore had arranged his death, he did not want Draco Malfoy to become a killer, so he told Snape to kill him."

"He also left Snape with the information that I am a Horcrux and until I die Voldemort cannot be killed. Though he did not out right say that to Snape."

"Anyway…the Horcrux in the cave was removed from someone with the initials 'R.A.B'"

"And you know the events of that night and the following days up to his funeral?"

"Yeah, I do," Ginny told him softly. "But tell me all about this past year, you were supposed to have been on the run from the Ministry while you were actually hunting down Horcruxes."

"Are you sure you want to here all about it today? Harry questioned, wincing inwardly at her death glare.

"What do you think my answer is?" She asked, menacingly.

"Harry Shut his eyes and looked up at the sky, he then sighed and buried his head in her shoulders, taking in her scent, he would not have expected anything less from her.

"All right," He nodded. "But, please make me stop if you can't take it anymore."

Although he did not here any verbal response, he knew she would say yes and not stop him.

"Well, you do remember the attack by Voldemort, as the Order was trying to bring over to the Burrow?"

"Yeah," Ginny nodded. "How can I forget that, not only did Moody die, I tasted firewhiskey."

"You also remember my wand destroyed Malfoy's wand (which Voldemort has burrowed)."

"Yeah," Ginny said, irritation evident in her voice. "How can I forget, that was the day I saw you after a month or so and that was the day, my brother lost his ear also."

"All right," Harry said, just as irritated as her "I'm just trying to recollect, so many things have happened in the past year."

"Anyway," He did not let her talk. "At the Burrow, the Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour gave Ron, Hermione and me bequests from Professor Dumbledore's will. Ron got the Deluminator, and Hermione got the, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I was suppose to get the Godric Gryffindor's Sword and the Snitch I caught in my first-ever Quidditch match. The sword, however, was kept by the Ministry, who claimed it to be 'an important historical artifact.'"

"We assumed it might help us with out Horcrux hunt," He continued. "Whatever Dumbledore had left us, so we tried to get the Sword, but he refused to hand it over."

"Then, you know, at Bill and Fleur's wedding reception, Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus arrives, announcing that Scrimgeour is dead and the Ministry of Magic has fallen under Voldemort's control. As Death Eaters approach, we, as in Hermione, Ron and I left from there. Hermione disapparated us to Tottingham, Court Road; where we hide in an empty cafe so that we could plan what we had to do next."

"However, the Death Eaters found us and we were able to escape them narrowly. Then we eventually took refuge in Number 12 Grimmauld Place."

"While we were at Grimmauld Place, Remus came with a proposition to join us in the horcrux hunt, although he was not aware of it."

"When he told me that he left Tonks, because he had found out she was pregnant, and he feared the child would carry his lycanthropy, I mocked him, called him a coward and not a true Gryffindor. I felt horrible, but I had to do it. He got mad at me and sent me flying across the room, but my mockery did what it was supposed to do."

"I realized later on that he returned to his family shortly after our argument. I realised from a sign on a bedroom door that Sirius Black's brother Regulus was the "R.A.B" who removed the Locket Horcrux from the cave."

"Is it the same cave, where Riddle had once…" Ginny hesitated.

"Yeah," Harry told her, tightening his sold on her waist. "The very same cave in which he tortured those fellow Orphan mates."

Ginny just nodded, with a determined look on her face and asked her to continue.

"Hermione recalled seeing a locket while cleaning the house during the summer before my fifth year. We also realised that Kreacher had been stealing many of the Black Heirlooms, while we were cleaning that place up."

"Kreacher had in fact stolen the locket from the items to be thrown out. He admited that he had placed the Locket Horcrux in the cave as ordered by Voldemort, and Regulus later died retrieving it."

"With his help, we got hold of Mundugus Fletcher, as he had stolen everything from the house after Sirius had died. He told us that the locket was sold to Dolores Umbridge"

"Then, I suppose you hear of our break into the Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked her.

"What were you thinking?" Ginny asked sarcastically.

"Well we needed the locket, and she worked in the Ministry of Magic so we had to do it," Harry defended himself.

"Whatever Harry," Ginny said, rolling her eyes although her smile gave her away. "I would have loved to join you with the break-in," She added with a wink.

"With a little help from Polyjuice potion," Harry began but Ginny snorted and muttered "right, very, very little," which Harry chose to ignore and continued as though he had not been interrupted "We were able recover the locket. We were also able to save suspected Muggle-Borns from the Ministry."

"But then Grimmauld Place was no longer safe as, Yelexy held onto Hermione while she was trying to apparate us out of there. We were forced to flee to the countryside. Hermione took us to the woods next to the place where the World Cup was held."

"We traveled the country, looking for Horcruxes and means to destroy them. We overhearing a discussion between Griphook, you know, the Goblin and several others, including Dean Thomas and Ted Tonks. We learnt that the Sword of Gryffindor, was at Hogwarts and in the Snape's office, the new Headmaster"

"We also learnt of your adventure and thwarted attempt to steel it, and then Griphook told Dean that you guys were punished severely by Snape. We also realised it was fake. Then I decided to find the real one, so that we could destroy the Horcruxes.

"After this, Ron and I got into an argument over my lack of a plan for finding and destroying the Horcruxes. Ron was made to leave us because of this argument."

"What do you mean made to leave?" Ginny asked sharply.

"His thoughts were controlled by the Horcrux," His voice made it very clear that, nothing else could have happened. "I did not want the Horcrux left in out bag or something like that, so we wore it. We had also figured it was causing the problem of out sad moods, so we took turns and wore it."

"After he was made to leave us, Hermione was really shaken up by that. I've never seen her cry so much, she would cry on and on at night when she though I was asleep or something like that. I was not sure what I was supposed to do."

"Hermione and I in search of the sword, landed up in Godric's Hollow. We saw my parents graves, and their house. The site of the house was horrible, there were a lot of people who had visited that site and people had left notes for me."

"While we were looking at the house, Hermione and I were beckoned by Bathilda Bagshot into her home."

"Although I knew something was not right in her dusty house I followed her upstairs, alone, leaving behind Hermione, downstairs."

"She transformed into Voldemort's snake, Nagini. Voldemort himself appears almost immediately after that. Hermione caste the Blasting Curse which ricochets around the room, giving us a chance to escape, but the damage was done by then, my wand was in the way of the Blasting Curse and it broke into two pieces. Only a thin strand of phoenix feather was connecting the two halves together."

"Hermione then apparateed us out of Godric Hollow's to the Forest of Dean, a place she had visited as a child."

"While I was on guard duty one night, a doe-shaped Patronus lead mw to an icy pond containing the real Sword of Gryffindor. As I dived into the freezing water to retrieve it, the locket Horcrux tightens around my neck, strangling me. I was sure I was going to die then. But Ron saved me, he was guided back to the us by the deluminator Dumbledore gave him. Ron recovered the sword and destroys the locket with it."

"He…" Harry heccitated a lot, before making up his mind. "I don't think it is my place to tell you about the incident that occurred that day while he destroyed the locket, let me just tell you that, the Horcrux manipulated with him the same way it manipulated you."

"Ron, then warned us that Voldemort's name was Tabooed; speaking it reveals the speaker's location to Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

"Hermione was happy to see him, but she was also quite angry at him for leaving her, though she didn't voice it that way."

"Then we learnt from Xenophilius Lovegood that the cryptic symbol we had repeatedly encountered represents the three Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak."

"We did not know that Luna was kidnapped then, and when we pressed about Luna's absence, Lovegood admited that Death Eaters had abducted her in retaliation for supporting me in his paper, The Quibbler."

"Hoping for Luna's return, he had alerted Death Eaters that we were there, but we managed to escape."

"Shortly after that escape, I figures out that the clues are suggesting that I already had one of the Hallows (the Invisibility Cloak), and may have been secretly given another one in Dumbledore's will (the Resurrection Stone, hidden inside the snitch). I got obsessed with the Hallows."

"I accidentally used the Voldemort's name, and we were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, where we were put in the same cell as that of Luna, Dean, Ollivander and Griphook."

"Bellatrix saw that we had Gryffindor's Sword with us and she feared we had broken into Gringotts to retrieve it. So, she tortured Hermione, with the Crusiatus Curse for information."

Harry was recollecting her screams and Ron's screams trying to save her.

"It was horrible to hear her screams, and I could not do anything and I had to keep calm for Ron, I saw a flash of blue in the scrape mirror piece and thought it was Dumbledore, so I screamed out Help and that we were in Malfoy's Manor."

"My plea for help was listened to and Dobby came. Being a House-elf, he was able to Apparate directly into the cellar. He rescues Luna, Dean and Ollivander, by apparating them out and Ron and I were able to escape upstairs to help Hermione"

"How did you manage to escape, you didn't have a wand did you?" Ginny asked.

"Well Wormtail came to see what the confusion was and the noise that was made when Dobby apparated out Dean, Luna and Sir Ollivander. Ron and I pounced onto him and he tried to strangle me with his silver hand, as his wand was snatched from Ron. I asked him if that was how he was going to repay me for saving him that day in the Shrieking Shack, He hesitated and that caused his Silver hand to strangle himself, we, that is, Ron and I tried to stop it, but we could not."

"He died before us, but we could still hear Hermione's screams so we left his body there and ran to help Hermione."

"By the time we went up, Hermione was unconscious. Bellatrix tried to play with her. So we threw Pettigrew's wand down onto the floor. Then the chandelier came out lose, Bellatrix was directly under it, so she went off from there, the Chandelier fell on Hermione and Griphook."

"Hang on, way was Griphooh there?" Ginny asked, not remembering him mentioning the reason why Griphook was with Hermione.

"Oh well, he was called up, because the snatchers had found the Sword, which was with us and Bellatrix saw it and freaked out that we had gone into her vault. She wanted Griphook to confirm that it was not real, which was what Hermione was telling them."

Harry shrived, this had not happened long back and it was killing him to remember. He did not want to remember Dobby's death, it had been painful, he had loved that elf, for his funny mannerisms, He silently vowed to himself that he would make a beautiful Marble Tomb stone with the same inscribing and place it in Hogwarts, next to Dumbledore's tomb. Dobby deserved no less.

Ginny pulled herself closer to him, so that he would not remember the horrible things of that night.

"Take your time and then continue Harry," Ginny said softly, into his ears.

A/N: Well this is not edited either and if you are interested in the edited version you might want to check SIYE. The name of the story is same and yes I did change my pen name here.

Please do review!


	7. Chapter 7: The Last few Adventures

bucenterDisclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

**--**

**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Seven: The Last Few Adventures**

Harry was grateful for her understanding, he had to be strong then, but now he was with Ginny and he could totally be himself, the scared teenaged man.

Ginny was gently messaging his shoulders to ease the tension in it and make him feel a little more relaxed.

"Ron," He cleared his throat and then continued. "Ron then disarmed Bellatrix and I wrestled to take Draco's wand. Then Dobby showed himself, I grabbed onto Griphooh and Dobby Disapparated us to Bill and Fleur house, Shell cottage. Dobby was struck by a knife, during the escape, by Bellatrix and it hat made its mark. He died and I watched him, He was trying to say something but all he could manage was my name."

"Voldemort was alerted about us, when we were there and he went to the Malfoy Manor immediately, but I was not there so he tortured all the death eaters there. He then left for Hogwatrs, to take the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb, and I saw that through his eyes. He had figured out that Dumbledore had taken the Elder Wand from Grindelwald after their famous duel."

"In shell cottage, I had to make a decision Ginny," Harry continued. He was scared what her reaction would be if he told her that although he chose Horcruxes, and he had though about the Hallows as a mode for his survival. "And I thought very little about it then, but after I did it, Ron and Hermione argued about it like two parts of my mind."

"I had to make a choice between finding about Hallows or Horcruxes. I had to ask Griphook to help me break into Gringotts or find out about The Elder Wand. I knew Voldemort was going for the wand, he did kill Grindewal. I chose the horcruxes as I had a suspicion. The way Bellatrix got terrified about us having entered their vault, got me thinking, actually it convinced me that their was a Horcrux hidden in the Lestrange vault, but I was so angry with Dumbledore, he seemed to have know everything that would happen but he never had told me then what would happen to me."

"Was Hermione given the book to help her lead me to the Hallows, or for her to find out about it much later? Had I made the right choice? I was quite confused, but I stuck to the plan of finding the Horcruxes.

"Griphook agreed to help us break in but we would need to hand over the Gryffindor sword to him. We had no choice, but to agree to him. So we did, but we did not tell him that we would not give it as soon as we finish our break in. Then I decide to meet Ollivander."

"Ollivander confirmed the existence of the Elder Wand. He also said that a wand can transfer allegiance if its owner is defeated or disarmed. He also told us that, although the Elder Wand is unbeatable its master is not. So the master of the wand must always be on guard, against surprise attacks."

"It took a lot of careful planning for us to break into Gringotts. Griphook helped us a lot so that we could they penetrate through the defenses of Gringotts and retrieve Hufflepuff's Cup. At the end of it we lost the sword to Griphook, who just took it and ran away. We escaped Gringotts on the back of a dragon."

"Voldemort was by then informed of the theft of the cup, and you know what happened. All the Goblins are dead because of me. He went in there and killed them all."

"This alerted Voldemort to the fact that his horcruxes are in grave danger. He then unintentionally revealed the fact that the other Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts. He thinks of all the locations he needs to check up on to confirm nothing has happened to his Horcruxes and Hogwarts was one of his locations."

"We came to Hogsmead, where Afeborth Dumbledore protected us from the Death Eaters occupying the village. He also helped us to get into Hogwarts."

"Then we saw Neville, he lead us to the Room of requirement and you know what happened. Luna told us about the lost diadem, and you got a little, mind you very little," He put great emphasis on little, and took hold of her hands in his very tightly, his voice taking on a note of amusement in it. "Jealous when I didn't mind going with Cho to their common room. I was only bothered about seeing how the lost diadem looks, you know." He ignored her glare and her fight to get free.

"Harry!" She shrieked, when Harry let go of her hand to tickle her.

"You looked so cute, when you got jealous," He informed her as he let her go. She immediately sprung up and away from him.

"I WAS NOT JEALOUS!" Ginny screamed, towering over Harry, as he lay on the ground laughing at her defensive mannerism.

Seeing him laugh, Ginny could not be angry at him, it was quite funny, although she would never mention it until her dying day.

"You prat, Harry," She said, punching him lightly on his chest, as she settled down leaning against the tree and pulled his head into her lap. "You need to be telling me something serious here, and you are pulling my leg."

He sobered up immediately.

"Well," his took on a serious note. "Luna and I headed out to their Common Room, where we ran into Alecto Carrow. She pressed her Dark Mark, which sent notice to Voldemort that I was at Hogwarts."

"Luna stunned her almost immediately, but the damage had been done, I felt it through my scar. Voldemort had been notified of my presence."

"Soon after that, both, Amycus Carrow and Professor McGonagall entered the Ravenclaw Tower. Amycus saw Alecto lying on the floor and mistakes her to be dead, but McGonagall told him she is only stunned. Then he blurted out the fact that Voldemort had instructed them that I might go into the Revenclaw tower and he decided to put the blame on the Revenclaw children. McGonagall got furious and told him outright he was being a coward and she won't let him do it. He just told her that for what she won't let him do, she will have to pay the price and then he spit into her face."

Harry's voice was layered with venom and he shut his eyes as he felt Ginny run her hand through his hair, he lost himself to her soothing touch for a minute. "I couldn't take it. I could not see McGonagall being disrespected so badly, by a deateater. I reveled my self and cast the _Cruciatus Curse_ on him."

Harry shrived violently, while Ginny just held him tighter. "I enjoyed it Ginny, I did not want him to do that, McGonagall was telling me off, although she was shocked by my presence. "

"I told her that Voldemort was on his way, she told me to run, to go into hiding, but I had to find that Horcrux, first. I told her I need to find something in the castle, so she led me out of the Tower and we ran into Snape in a corridor. McGonagall engaged him in a duel so fierce, I have never seen her like that." There was admiration in Harry's voice, laced with respect for his ex-Head-of-the-House. Snape escaped by jumping out of a window and "flying" towards the perimeter wall."

"I recalled seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement after I asked the Gray Lady the Ghost of Revenclaw. She was Revenclaw's daughter and she had stolen it, she then hid it in a Hollow tree in the forest of Alabina. She had also told about this to Riddle. I connected the part to having Riddle come to see Dumbledore for a job."

"I recollected seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement when I hid my Potions book there in my sixth year after that Sectumsempra incident. I was wondering what you can come across walking up to Dumbledore's office. When I remembered the Room of Requirement, it would be so arrogant like Voldemort to think he was the only one to have treaded across the secret room."

"So is that way you kicked me out of the room?" Ginny asked, scowling down at him, you could have told me.

"There was no time, Ginny," Harry said, really irritated with her. "I could not have, even if I wanted to. The Castle was already on attack."

"I know, but…" Ginny said, grimacing.

"Anyway, Hermione had destroyed the Cup Horcrux with a basilisk fang that she and Ron retrieved from the Chamber of Secrets."

"How did they get in there, you had to--"

"Ron was there when I had spoken it to the locket, he tried it and got it right," Harry told her, he wanted to finish up with this as soon as he could, and by the looks of it, it would take him a life-time to convince her why he had done what he had done.

Thinking back to the sacrifices she had done, and how she had accepted his decisions of the break-up, Harry felt he did owe her a life time.

"When we were just outside the Room of Requirement, Ron mentions that the house elves are still in the kitchens and in danger, then Hermione jumped onto him and kissed him senseless."

"We were in the middle of a war and when I reminded them that, Ron told me that, that was the reason it had to be now or never! I really didn't know how to react to that."

"Oh you poor baby," Ginny teased. "You did not know how to tell your friends that the war was more important than them pulling out each other tonsils?"

She made gagging sounds, "How did you even stand there?"

"Anyway, we sent you and Tonks out and got in again," Harry ignored her question to continue. "I was about to pick up the Diadem, when we were attacked by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe unleashed Fiendfyre,"

"What the hell are you talking about? YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" Ginny screamed out

"Killing himself and destroying the diadem, but we escaped unharmed," Harry continued as though Ginny had not screamed into his face or hit him really hard on his head.

"Ginny, we were at war, and now that was in the past," He told her patiently, rubbing the side of his head.

"You should have been more careful," She started, only to have Harry clam her mouth shut.

"I love you to death, but please," Harry pleaded. "Let me finish, then you have a life time to do as you wish to me.

She sighed, her shoulder sagging, but nodded for him to contimue.

"We came out of the Room of Requirement and I did not see you there. We ran into Percy and Fred dueling the Minister of Magic, himself, Thicknesse. Percy said that he will resigning from the Ministry, and Fred gleefully noted this, telling Percy that this was the best joke he had ever made. Then there was an explosion, the rocks in the corridor shattered. That is what killed Fred."

"It was awful and all I could think of how I had failed him," Harry said, shaking his head as Ginny had tensed up and relaxed when she remembered that he was still alive.

"Percy refused to leave the body until it was well hidden. Then we got back into the battle."

There was a comfortable silence that settled between them, Ginny was looking into his eyes, worry etched all over her face. Harry gave her a small smile, but that did not reassure her much.

Harry lifted his hand and brushed a few strands of her hair off her face, creased her back neck, slowly puling her face down. She did not refuse, she leaned down and brushed her lips softly against his. She sighed tiredly and pulled back.

"It's not bad," Harry told her softly. "It gets better and I would prefer you here it from me rather than some one else."

She gave him a soft smile and asked him to continue.

"I got another glimpse into Voldemort's mind," Harry sighed heavily. "And I saw him asking for Snape, in the Shrieking Shack. I headed over there. I saw Voldemort kill Snape, believing it will make him the Elder Wand's master. He told Snape he was sorry, but in reality he was not."

"I went up to Snape as he lay dying, he gave me his memories," Harry was once again confused as to how should treat that man. "The memories proved that Snape was indeed loyal to Dumbledore, as he had loved my mum all his life."

"The curse from the Gaunt's Ring Horcrux, made Dumbledore closer to his death. He had ordered Snape to kill him at a strategic time, sparing Draco from carrying out Voldemort's order to murder him." Harry was once again cursing himself for not having seen this.

"It was Snape who had sent the doe Patronus to the forest," Harry recalled, putting aside his miss judgment of Snape. "The memories also held the truth about the fact that I was a Horcrux and in order to destroy Voldemort I had to die."

"I felt betrayed by Dumbledore, he had know all along, I was angry at him," He swiped the angry tears that had rolled down his cheeks in frustration and irritation, had he not lived through that? _Why am I crying now?_

"I walked up to Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest," Harry told her, his breath heaving. He felt like he was reliving that part of time all over again. "I passed Neviell and told him he'd have to kill the snake incase Ron and Hermione are unable to."

"I walked away from him, I saw you," He chocked, unable to continue.

"You were comforting some girl who wanted her mum," He added ignoring his voice and the tears. He was not ashamed to cry in front of her. "I though you looked at me, but I was not sure, I did not want to turn around."

"Along the way," he said, his voice trembling. "I realised what the inscription on the snitch Dumbledore gave him meant. I kept the snitch close to my mouth and told it that I am about to die."

"I found the Resurrection Stone in it," He voice steady. "I saw my parents, Sirius and Remus. They kept me company to go across the Dementors."

"Voldemort casts the _Avada Kedavra_ on me and all I though about was the feel of your lips on mine," Harry smiled up at her, raising his hand to wipe the tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"I don't know if I've ever told you Ginny, but I love you," He told her passionately.

Ginny chuckled, "That won't keep you away from me. I will kill you for getting yourself killed."

Ginny could feel what he felt and although she knew she imagined it, she was sure that was exactly how he had felt.

"What happened after that?" She asked hesitantly, she was curious but she did not want him to remember it if it bothered him.

"Well," Harry started, his eyes brightening and his voice taking a more chreeful note. "I got up in an ethereal place that looked like the King's Cross station. I was unsure whether I was alive or dead."

"Dumbledore appeared and explained that Voldemort's Horcrux within me has been destroyed. He also said that just as Voldemort cannot die while his soul fragments remain, Voldemort cannot kill ME because he used my blood in his resurrection."

"So, because he had your blood he could not kill you?" Ginny asked, her face screwed up in concentration trying to recollect what she had missed. "That's a little confusing, how?"

"Well, my blood, which carried the ancient magical protection my mother, gave me through her sacrifice years before." He explained and watched her face brighten.

"Voldemort's killing curse instead destroyed the only thing within me that did not carry my mum's protection," Harry continued. "The fragment of his own soul that was unknowingly passed to me the night my mum and dad sacrificed themselves to save me."

"In Kings Cross, I saw a representation of Voldemort's true self: a weeping, deformed child that Dumbledore described as 'beyond any of our help'," Harry said.

"He also gave me an explanation as to why my wand acted on its own accord against Voldemort," Harry told her, remembering bits of his conversation with Dumbledore. "He said my wand recognized Voldemort as my enemy and responded accordingly."

"But," Ginny was bubbling with questions. "He did not have his wand, did he? How did your wand recognised him?"

"Because it recognised him not his wand," Harry told her patiently. "Voldemort was using another wizard's wand as he had learnt of the twin core connection between his and my wand; that burrowed wand was not well equipped for the unexpected challenge."

"I then got up and was aware of my surroundings, so I feigned death with Narcissa Malfoy's help," Harry voice mirrored Ginny's shock. "Then he put the Curciatus Curse on me, to check if I was dead, but the Elder Wand did not work against it's true Master."

"He then Ordered Hagrid to carry me to the Edge of the Forest and well…" Harry trailed off.

Ginny nodded, shutting her eyes, "I know what happened after that." She spoke so quietly that Harry was not sure if that was all she spoke.

Harry was staring up into her face, scared of her reaction. She opened her beautiful brown eyes and looked deep into his Emerald Green eyes, "How can I stay mad at you after that?"

Harry shrugged and simply said "Your Ginny!"

She looked at him, blinked once, and then burst into laughter, _Yes you stupid man, I am Ginny! Ginny Weasley and this Weasley will not let go off you ever again, no matter what valid reasons you have._

center/center

By the time Harry and Ginny entered the Great Hall, Hogwarts had been cleared off all battle scars, the grass was a lush green again, and the Lake's surface was smooth, with out any disturbance. The Giant Squid was seen playing around happily, splashing water on the banks of the lake.

The Castle looked warm and welcoming once again. The Forbidden Forest, although still forbidden was a lot safer place than it was previously. The Magical creatures had come to an understanding that they would not harm any wizards or witches that crossed their paths.

Harry walked into the Great Hall with his arm round Ginny's waist. He spotted his parents, Sirius, Remus, Nymphdora and the Weasley brothers, all huddled together discussing something very serious.

Ron looked up and saw them approaching and muttered something, immediately all of them broke free from the huddle and started talking loudly about Qudditch. Harry narrowed his eyes on them, as her walked up to them.

"Discussing something important?" Harry asked off handedly.

"Qudditch,"

"Dragons,"

"Battle,"

"Hogwarts,"

"Malfoys,"

"Burrow,"

The stopped abruptly and looked at each other,

"Battle,"

"Quidditch,"

"ALL RIGHT, I GET IT!" Harry roared over their voices. "You are talking about me and don't want me to know, at least you could do a better job of not being guilty."

"Dragons?" He muttered under his breadth.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Ginny's sharp voice made him jump.

"Accio Extendable ears," She screamed pointing her wand at her twin brothers.

A dozen of them flew into her out stretched hand, not only from the twins but also from most people standing there, including her parents.

"Explain," She muttered calmly, looking at all her brothers and parents, who were looking down at their feet, shifting from one leg to another.

"Ginny," Bill started.

"Don't Bill," Ginny warned, her voice rising, her eyes flashing in danger. They had not only talked. After their talk, Harry and Ginny had spent quite some time making up for lost time, as Ginny had put it.

She had seen to it that they had taken out their frustrations of the past year. It had been difficult for both of them. It had not been their first choice to break up, in fact that was the reason Harry had broken up with her on the funeral day and not on the day Dumbledore had died. It had been on his mind even then.

"All right, we," Molly started, pointing at her husband and herself. "Were taking a walk around the Lake when we heard you, we hid in the bushes and listened to your talk."

"I just realised," Arthur continued for his wife. "That all of us had some how listened in. We left when we, um…," He turned a shade of red that Harry associated, Ron with embarrassment. "Uh…we left when we heard you guys kissing," He finished in one breadth very quickly.

"Oh," was all Harry could say. He looked down; he was not sure how he was supposed to react to that. He was not ashamed, but neither was he embarrassed by what he had done, but discussing it with the girl's father and her six-elder-overprotective-brothers, was not something he was comfortable with.

"Didn't you guys feel, that that conversation was meant only for me and a few others?" Ginny's voiced held disappointment that made all of them look down in shame.

"We are not sorry, Ginny," Fred said loudly, looking right into his sisters eyes. "We love Harry too, and we wanted to know what he had faced, we treat him as family and families have the right to know when one member was suffering."

The others nodded along after Fred's statement.

Harry was touched by this, "Let them be Ginny, I don't mind," He had not wanted anyone to know, but when Fred put it that way, something in him broke, the hard shield he had built around his heart from the years of abuse at the hands of his uncle.

He pulled Ginny closer to him, he had changed a lot. A near death experience changes people, but death changes them completely.

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"Please," Harry pleaded. He was standing with his mother and father.

"Oh, all right," James sighed. "We did promise him, Lily."

"I know," Lily said. "Well let me call Severus, you gather the others. The Weasleys are your, Harry." She walked up to her friend who was sitting alone, watching Remus, playing with his son, enviously.

Harry had cornered his parents in the Great Hall. He had not been able to put back the Elder Wand into Dumbledore's tomb. As his mother had promised, he wanted to put up some wards against Dumbledore's tomb. He did not want another Riddle breaking into Dumbledore's tomb and violating basic society ethics, just to get a wand that would be trouble for them.

James had been an Aurror when he had lived, and Lily was studying various departments in the Departments of Mysteries. She was also apprenticing with Slughorn, she had wanted to take up his job, after he had retired.

She was also extensively working along with the Department of Magical Creatures, against the prejudices of the wizarding worlds. She wanted to let Goblins have wands and the Centaurs let to be as they wanted to.

Harry sighed as he heard his mother tell him, he had to convince the Weasleys. He had avoided the Weasley brothers ever since he had realised they knew what he had been up to with their sister.

"Better start on it," Harry's father advised as he walked up to his best friend, Sirius.

Harry walked up to Bill who was talking with Charlie and Ron.

"Hey," Harry started nervously.

"Hey, Harry, where is Ginny and Hermione?" Ron asked, feeling Harry's nervousness.

"Oh, they wanted to have some Girl time, so they headed to the Dorm," Harry said, fidgeting with his fingers.

There was an uncomfortable silence, which Harry decided to break.

"Hey, guys, I needed some help, call it my last adventure if you want, but I need some enchantments and wards placed around Dumbledore's tomb."

"Whatever for?" Bill asked, it was his area of expertise and he wanted to know why?

"Well, I want to return the Elder Wand to the rightful owner. Although I'll be it's true master, I want it placed in Dumbledore's tomb. I do not want to reunite the three Hallows, and the wand is more trouble then it is worth."

This earned him Bill's respect, although Bill did not say it out loud. Ron and Charlie saw his expression.

"Sure, we will help," Bill told him, giving him a small smile. "We will also will gather the Weasley army. I'm sure the rest of us put together, can make it very good."

Harry smiled, as he relaxed on hearing Bill's words. It was already dark and Harry did not want to waste another moment. "Let me get Ginny and Hermione and I'll meet you near Dumbledore's tomb. Dad and mum are also gathering those who can make it stronger."

"The more the merrier," Charlie said, giving him a pat on his back. "I never really said it, but thanks for two things, one for protecting my sister, by breaking up with her and two, for dying for us."

With that the three of them walked off, to find Fred and George and Percy, leaving a gaping Harry staring after them. He shook himself from his state and smiled to himself. _Tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean, I need to work on each and every brother, until then, I can't really gain their trust. I will do it. _

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It was quite late at night when the group, which consisted of Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Dora, Andromeda, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, McGonagall, Kingsley, Severus and Harry, were walking back to the castle, exhausted.

It had taken them three continuous hours of work, to seal Dumbledore's tomb. They were not sure, themselves how to break the enchantments and wards they had erected. Fred and George had also put up some untested products of their joke shop as part of the enchantments.

The best part of it was Snape's use of Leglimens embedded onto the tomb, with some help from Hogwarts magic. That layer would protect the tomb from unwanted people getting close to it. It worked as a Muggle Repelling Charm, only it kept away people with intentions of sabotaging the tomb in any form of way.

No matter how good the person was at Occlumency they would not be able come closer than 8 feet from the tomb. The sorting hat, Xavier, had told Snape how he worked and Snape had implemented the same method.

The tomb now looked untouched, but Harry could feel a light pulse when ever he went close to it.

The trek up the seven flights of stairs went by quite quickly, Harry only remembered his mother and father whishing him good night and kissing him on his forehead. He was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit his head.

He did not see or realise that Ginny had come into his Dorm and crawled into his bed, ignoring her brother's protests, who were bunking in the same Dorm.

A/N: Well what do you guys think? Come on I need some reviews... I'm done with the story and if there are no reviews I may not feel like putting a sequel that I've been considering for this. Let me know what you think. One request you guys...any idea how I can get more humour into this with the help of Fred and George, I'm not sure I've put enough and I'd like to put some up.

This is **not edited so ignore the mistakes**, my betas are great but real life keeps them busy, if you really are not able to read at all I'd suggest you shift to SIYE, it's edited and follows a different pattern, as the chapter lengths are different and some other grammar changes are there. This is just to let you know how the story progresses.

One more request, give me some ideas, so I know what you guys expect form further chapters of this story. I'm may not change it, but I might if the idea is really good.

Any good wedding songs for Harry Ginny's wedding that will be in the 27th chapter, if you are wondering.

The Authors note is too long... do leave a review please!


	8. Chapter 8: The way old friends are

centerb**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Nine: The Way Old Friends** Are/center/b

Harry woke up with a start; he did not know the reason to this sudden consciousness. He cracked his eyelids, and could tell it was around nine in the morning. Although the curtains were closed around his bed, he could hear the muttering around his dorm-room. He was wondering if that was what woke him, when he felt something move onto his chest. He looked down, gave a yelp of surprise and fell off his bed in his haste to move away from her.

His yelp and the laughter of the other occupants woke Ginny up. She saw her brothers laughing, and Harry looking at her wide-eyed, confused as to how she was there.

"You idiots were not so happy when I came in here last night. Can't you let me sleep?" she mumbled at her brothers who had stopped laughing when they saw her awake. They knew she was not a morning person.

"Get up here, Harry," she told him as fiercely as she could, although her voice was still sleepy. "I don't like my pillow running away."

She buried her head in his pillow and promptly went back to sleep. Harry put his glasses on, and sat on his bed, avoiding Fred, George, Ron and Charlie's eyes. He pulled the covers over Ginny, and let her sleep.

"What time is it?" Harry asked Ron, stifling a yawn. He would not mind getting back into his bed to sleep, but he didn't think Ginny's brothers would like it.

"It's half past eight. That's the reason none of us wanted to wake you," Ron told him. "She can be horribly nasty if we wake her too early in the morning."

"Yeah, better be careful," said Charlie, walking toward the door. Just as he was about leave, he turned around and faced Harry. "That was my sister you were with. She means the world to me. Just remember that."

He did not wait for Harry to reply. He walked off, leaving Fred and George gaping after him.

"I told you he's met a woman in his dragon reserves," said George.

"Yeah, you always say that," said Fred, rolling his eye at his twin, walking out of the room with George following him.

"So…um…I'll be heading for breakfast," said Ron, looking anywhere but at Harry.

He left before Harry could ask him anything else.

Harry let his head fall back onto his pillow. He was wondering how Ginny could have gotten into his bed in the night without him realising it. After living a year in tents, he had become quite a light sleeper. He could get up if there was the slightest disturbance.

He turned onto his side and pulled Ginny gently to himself. She came without any struggle. He could smell the distinctive smell he associated with her. After he had described what he had been up to, Ginny had told him what had happened during the last school year. She had been put under the i_Cruciatus Curse/i_ often, as part of her punishment for not obeying rules set by the Carrows. It was not easy for Harry to listen to her and her sufferings. He felt awful for having left her behind.

He blamed himself for it, although he knew, if he were given a chance to redo the whole thing, he probably would have left her behind again. The Trace was still on her, and, unless she was seventeen, he would have done anything possible to keep her back at home.

That was not all they had talked about. After both of them had told each other what had happened, Ginny had pinned him down and started to take out her past year frustrations, anger, hurt, sorrow and fear on him. He had been willing to comply, but they had almost gone too far. Had it not been for the fact that an owl sleeping on the branch of the tree they were leaning against hooted loudly, he was sure they would not have stopped.

The sexual tension still had lingered, and, seeing her in his bed in the morning, it had done nothing to ease it. A year away from her had made him insecure too. He was not going to admit it, but he really had felt like he had on stormy nights, locked up in his cupboard when he was younger. It had brought up unpleasant memories of the Dursleys that he had chosen to ignore and forget.

Seeing her, curled around his leg and her head resting on his pillow with her hair spread all over, made Harry realize that no matter what he would never leave her behind again. This August she would turn seventeen, and, after that there was no way he could bear to stay away from her.

He kissed her forehead and settled down into a more comfortable position, pulling Ginny closer. This was the first time he had slept with anyone next to him. It was an odd feeling to have someone by your side, trying to sleep. It was a pleasantly welcome change that Harry recognised; one that he associated with being secure as he slept. He did not recall a time in his life when he felt this safe.

Thinking about Ginny, he fell asleep, and that was how his parents and Sirius saw him as they came up to wake him up. Lily and James were shocked. This was their son, and the last time she had held him he was a baby. She freaked out at first, seeing her son in the arms of another woman.

Sirius gradually pulled the covers, and the three of them saw both of them dressed and sleeping peacefully. They did not want to wake them, but they knew it would be better if they did rather than the Weasleys.

Arthur, Remus, Bill, Charlie and Percy had gone back to the Burrow to check if it was in good condition. Apart from the fact that the Burrow had been thoroughly ransacked, and the whole place turned upside down, the house was standing as strong as ever. The Ghoul in the attic was found dead. They had set to work, and the place was as good as it had been before.

Bill and Charlie had returned to Hogwarts to inform the rest of them that the Burrow was safe. They had even reestablished most of the wards. Percy and Arthur had returned to Aunt Muriel's house to shift whatever they had been able to move.

When they had gone, James and Sirius had gone to Gringotts to make sure the will of Lily and James Potter was read out, and Harry got the whole Potter's inheritance. Explaining to them that they were alive had taken a while, but they had agreed to follow the will of Lily and James, and to hand everything over to Harry.

"Wake up, Harry," Lily was shaking Harry gently. He swatted her hand away, and burrowed his head further into Ginny's hair.

"Um…sleepy… away," Harry replied incoherently and pulled the sheets up, above his head.

Despite herself, Lily smiled at this tantrum. i_He is quite like me in this aspect,/i _she thought. She tugged away the sheets again, and pocked him harder. This disturbance caused Ginny to flutter her eyes open; seeing the red hair, she turned around to snuggle into her pillow, only to find somebody, by her side. Then she remembered the fact that she had crawled into Harry's bed.

Ginny also heard some male voices whispering, in the dorm. She lifted her head and saw that she had been caught sleeping with her boyfriend by her boyfriend's parents and his godfather. Clearly embarrassed, she tried to get up, only to realize Harry had his arm around her.

She knew she was red in the face; still, she lifted her head and looked at Lily, with some caution. She was not sure what they might say about this.

"Oh! You're up," said Lily, clearly looking relieved. "Please, don't be bothered about this. I do understand what you might be going through, to seek his comfort. Do you think you can get him up and come down to the Common Room? Your father and brothers have gone to the Burrow and should be returning soon. We need to discuss something very important with Harry. Bring him down please."

Lily pulled James and Sirius, and went out of the dorm to let Ginny wake Harry. Ginny sighed out in relief. She was sure she would have been told off by Lily. She didn't think she could ever look at Lily in the eyes.

She faced Harry, and felt awful at having to wake him up. He slept so peacefully. There was neither care nor concern on his face, and he had a soft smile gracing his lips. As she continued to admire him, she realised she needed to get him to wake up fast. She shifted around so that he would be sleeping on his back. She carefully put his arms around herself.

She then placed her upper body onto his chest, and bent her head to kiss his forehead tenderly. She felt him settle more comfortably into his pillow. This was not what she had intended. She wanted him to get up.

Ginny sighed, a soft smile gracing her lips and her eyes drinking in Harry's facial features fondly. As her eyes rested on his lips, they twinkled with mischief. She pulled a strand of her hair, and ran it along his face.

He shifted his face away from her hair, and expressed his dislike by turning his head away from her. Ginny chuckled softly at his antics. He was so much like a child, yet he was a man, an adult who had gone through so many things in his life…

Ginny traced the out line of his lips with her hair, and then his eyes. It was a good thing she was watching him closely, because his eyelids cracked open with great difficulty. He saw her, and, the next thing Ginny knew, she was pinned to the bed under Harry.

Her eyes widened and she laughed at the look on his face. The sleep had not left his eyes, but he was looking at her with his deep emerald eyes, telling her silently, i_You are in big trouble, Miss Weasley!/i_

Biting back her laughter, she said in the most innocent voice she could manage, "Harry, be a dear and move off of me, would you?"

"Why?" answered Harry, his voice laced with his sleep.

"You see," her lips twitched, as she tried not to give into her laughter, "I…uh…well I feel you are quite heavy, and I do not have the strength to hold your weight like this. I just got up and this," she continued with a straight face, pointing at their current position even as she saw him getting alert and the sleep disappearing from his eyes. "This will be difficult for me to end right now."

She could no longer hold her laughter at the incredulous look Harry was giving her. Her laughter was so infectious that Harry shook his head in amusement.

Ginny's laughter died in her throat as the look in his eyes changed. She knew that look. It was the same one he had when they used to end up in broom closets, or empty classrooms, or secret passages, or any deserted corner they could find immediately, back in her fifth year.

She gazed hungrily at his lips, which were parted and were inching closer to her lips. She wet her lips unconsciously, as she felt her throat go dry.

His lips landed on hers, and she was happy when he pulled away immediately. He rolled off her in disgust, which matched Ginny's.

"I hate morning breath," he stated scowling at his bed, as though morning breadth was its fault.

He blindly reached for his glasses, put them on, and swung his legs over his bed.

"I'm heading to the shower, and I'll clean my teeth, and then kiss you good morning," Harry vowed as he padded bare foot to the showers.

"Well," said Ginny, "make it fast. I don't want to wait long for my kiss, and your parents want to talk to you and me about something important. There are down waiting for you, in the Common Room. I'll catch you there."

She slipped into her shoes and padded over to the door.

centre****/centre

Harry reached the Common Room just as he saw Ginny descending the girls' dorm stairs. Ginny plopped her self onto the sofa next to Sirius, while Harry took great pleasure in crawling between his parents, a contented look on his face.

Lily leaned her head on Harry's shoulder, pulling him closer to her to kiss his forehead affectionately. Harry let his eyes close and the feeling of contentment washed over him.

"Harry," James reluctantly broke the moment, "there is much that needs to be discussed now. You were not easily available when you turned seventeen, and, well there has been a lot of confusion then."

Harry frowned at his father wondering where he might be going with his ramblings.

"You are aware that in our wills we," James continued, motioning to Lily and himself, "left everything we ever had in your name. I think what you are not aware of is exactly how much there is to be passed onto you."

"Wasn't the money in the vault, all you left for me?" Harry asked feeling more confused as his father went on. He had no idea what his father was talking about.

"Well," James pressed on, "Gringotts was supposed to have sent a letter to you on your birthday, handing over the Potter Family vaults and the keys to the various properties that have been passed down in the Potter family."

"So," said Harry tentatively, "does that mean there is more than what I have been using these past years?"

"Yeah," said James, looking at Harry carefully.

"So what do you want me to do? Why tell me now? It's yours, and you are alive."

"Harry," Lily sighed, "once the will was read just after our deaths, the Goblins will do as stated in the will. Now, the thing we wanted to tell you is that we need you to go to Gringotts and claim it. Otherwise it will go to the next pureblood family, the Malfoys. It is an old pureblood rule."

"I'm not going into Gringotts, unless you want me dead," said Harry, flatly refusing whatever his parents had to say.

"Harry," James said in partially raised voiced. "I'll be with you under the cloak, and you have to face them sooner or later."

"Later would be my choice," he muttered under his breadth.

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Sweetheart, you don't really have a choice. What your dad is trying to tell you is you need to go down there and get a hold of the vaults, and then, I'm sure, Metcky is still around, and she would have kept the manor in good condition. Bill, your dad and Sirius can work on the wards, and then we can all move in there until the Burrow is in better condition."

"Manor?!" Harry's eyes had widened, and he was gaping at his parents and a smirking Sirius. "You are not serious, are you?"

"Nope," Sirius piped in, "only…" his voice flattered when he saw Lily's eyes narrowing on him.

"Yes, Harry," said James, "a manor."

center****/center

Ron and Hermione had not really liked what was being planned behind Harry's back, but they went on with it. They knew it was an action which was pushed to 'later' far too many times. The plan was, while James, Sirius, and Lily were telling Harry about the Potter family wealth, Snape, Remus and Molly would be making the last pointers for their next mission, 'Tormenting the Dursleys'.

The plan was to go in disguise and help the Dursleys shift back to Privet Drive. Dedalus Diggle had confirmed that 4 Privet Drive was destroyed, and the houses around it were also in ruins, due to the battle that had taken place when Harry was being moved to the Burrow.

No one wanted Harry to know about the Plan; hence they were sending Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Bill to deal with the Goblins.

Hogwarts was standing as tall as ever, and there was no big amount of damage to the building. Once the Room of Requirement was fixed, the Castle had been easy to restore. Minor construction charms here and there; a plastering charm, and elemental charms like i_Reparo_/i and i_Evanesco_/i were used.

By the beginning of July all construction would be completed and all the teachers would have been appointed. The Board of Governors had promised a revision and upgrading of the syllabuses and curriculum.

The newly appointed Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, made a separate body, which would be independent of the Ministry's interferences, and would be responsible for the normal functioning of Hogwarts. All school rules were being revised and some rules were being bent. McGonagall was appointed headmistress and would take the position officially in June.

center****/center

"Why don't you enter?" Harry asked Ginny, as the five of them stood in front of the Gringotts door. He did not want to enter first. He was scared and nervous as to what the Goblins might do. He had not forgotten his first trip to the Wizarding bank.

_i'If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there.'_

'_How often do you check to see if someone's inside?'_

'_About once every ten years.' Griphook had said, with an evil smile that Harry was not about to forget in a hurry./i _

"HARRY! How could you ask my sister to go in first?" Ron demanded.

"Well, I don't want to enter first, and I know, from a lot of incidents, that Ginny is very much capable of looking after herself," said Harry, looking at his girlfriend affectionately.

This earned him a bright smile from Ginny, and three scowls from the others, namely, Bill, Ron, and Hermione.

Ginny moved to enter the door when Bill pulled her wrist, before she could reach the door.

"Wait, Ginny; I think it is safer if I handle this. I was, after all, employed here," Bill said in a very calm manner, although the sweat on his brow gave away exactly how cool he was about this.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her oldest brother and stepped back, sweeping her right hand in an exaggerated manner, and welcoming Bill to enter first. He was very hesitant even to take a step forward. With great effort, he pulled the door open and all of them entered, swallowing the lumps in their throats with great effort. Hermione was biting onto her lower lip so hard, Ginny could see blood.

As soon as the goblins were alerted of their presence, they all rushed towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all of them trying to shake their hands, with loud thank you for removing evil Wizards and Witches from there.

center****/center

"NO," Lily screamed. "No, James, we can not do this. That is my sister. Whatever you say, or whatever she has done, I can not hurt her."

Molly, Arthur, James, Sirius, Lily, and Snape were standing right outside the shelter home that had been set up for all those who were in need of it during the war. Lily had been so sure that she would make her sister regret everything she had every done to Harry, but at the prospect of actually hexing her sister was looming right over her head, she had chickened out.

This would be the first time Lily would be seeing her sister in over eighteen years. The prospect of seeing her only sister confused her. She was angry at her sister for treating Harry like a house-elf, but, on the other hand, she was excited to see her. No matter what had happened, Lily always had loved her sister.

James sighed, and hugged Lily, trying to take her confusion and pain away from her; although it did no good.

"You always were an amazing woman Lily. I always admired your heart, and your being so willingly gave it to anyone in need of it." James spoke softly, so that only Lily could hear him. He brushed away her tears with the pad of his thumb and gave her a warm smile.

"We will do only what you want. No one is forcing you to do this. I have a suggestion for you; that is, if you are not willing to hex your sister. Will you hear me out?"

She nodded weakly, staring into James' serious eyes.

"Why don't we let Molly and Arthur get them out, and we, all in our hoods, can help them shift their belongings, and then you can talk to your sister. Call her out and tell her you were Lily's best friend, and you want to talk to her or something. Keep your hood on if it makes you feel better."

"Promise none of you will hurt her?" The vulnerability in her eyes tore at James' heart, but he nodded.

"Potter promise!" he said with a grin. She smiled back, remembering that last time he had made a Potter promise. She looked away from him, grinning from ear-to-ear, remembering exactly how determined he was to keep up his last Potter promise.

center****/center

They were bringing in the last few items back into Privet Drive, when James nudged Lily with his elbow and pointed to Petunia. She turned to face her sister.

"Um…Pe…Petunia," she said nervously, taking tiny steps towards her.

"Yes?" Petunia asked, not sure she had heard this hooded freak correctly or not. Something about the voice made her reply.

"Can…um…can I talk to you, in private?" Lily blurted out. Vernon's eyes narrowed onto the hooded figure; he knew it was a woman and not a man, but, to let his wife be with a freak; it was something he did not like. He did not say anything when Petunia led the hooded figure into the kitchen, which was not occupied at the moment.

"What is that you want to talk about?" Petunia asked, shivering slightly. She had a horrible feeling about this person.

"How…how are you doing?" Lily's voice trembled. Seeing her sister had made her very happy, and yet, at the same time, she could not forget the pain her baby boy had to go through. Some how she felt that had she not had died, this would have never happened.

"I…" Petunia faltered, she had recognised that voice, but it was impossible. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, her breadth coming in short gasps. Tears welled up in her eyes, blinding her. She took a step closer to Lily, and stretched out her left arm, but reality caught up with her, and she pulled her hand back.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You reminded me of someone I loved very much, but my youth, jealousy, and arrogance made me push that person away."

"Never call my sister arrogant!" said Lily, tears choking her words before she pulled of her hood and hugged her sister, not giving her time to react.

Petunia was shocked beyond words, and did not return the hug. She tried pinching herself, and it hurt a hell of a lot. She also tried to remember if she was dead or something, but she was not sure.

Lily pulled back looked deep in to her sister's eyes, and Petunia knew what was coming. Petunia's shoulders slumped, and she looked back in her younger sister's eyes. Her courage, and years of old promises wavering. She let her guard down as she heard the dreaded word from her sister's mouth.

"Why Tuney?"

**A/N: Do leave an honest review. Thanks to my beta- Ameli and Eric! **


	9. Chapter 9: Gringotts

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and this wonderful world of imagination. It truly belongs to J.K. Rowling and I'm just having some fun with her characters.**

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**One Last Chance**

**Chapter Ten: Gringotts**

"Mr. Potter," a loud voice boomed over the many goblins who were all trying to grab a hold of Harry's hand. The voice stopped the other goblins who parted in such a way that there was a path left open for the older looking banker to come and stand in front of Harry and his friends.

The older looking goblin was not alone. There were two goblins flanking either side of this goblin that had an air of authority around him. The species are known for their cunningness, but this one looked like some sort of royalty among them.

He walked up to Harry and stood in front of him. He was almost two feet shorter than Harry, but that did not stop him from scrutinising Harry from head to toe, or stop Harry from squirming under the close scrutiny. Harry felt like he was caught in an act of stealth.

He held out his hand and said in the same booming voice, "Mr. Potter, I'm Grins Gringotts. I am the one in charge of Gringotts. I have a lot to talk to you about, but first I'd like to thank you for removing the evil wizards from here and also let you know my displeasure in your act of theft a few days back."

As Harry shook his hand, he made a promise to himself, _I will never try to break into Gringotts and I'll teach my children the same_. "You're welcome," Harry said looking anywhere but in Grins' eyes.

"This, Mr. Potter," Grins continued, dropping Harry's hand and pointing at the goblin to his right, who was eyeing Harry in such a manner it gave Harry, and the others, goose bumps, "is Argnook. He is the manager of all wills and testaments wizards and witches make as soon as they have a vault here. And this," he said pointing at the goblin to his left, "is Bircug, who is in charge of your accounts and has been for the past sixteen years, six months and seventeen days, from the night your parents died."

"Oh!" was all Harry could say.

"Well, why don't you join me in my office? There is much to discuss with you, Mr. Potter," said Grins, turning around and leading the way to the main hall with its many doors. Grins lead Harry, who tugged on Ginny's hand and made sure the others were following before trailing behind Grins into a door on the right of the hall. There was a passage lined with portraits of many goblins. There were names under each portrait, along with their birthday and death day.

At the end of the passage, an ornamented statue of a goblin was present. Halfway into the passage, there was an arch on the right; Grins walked into it. There were two goblins there who bowed down to Grins, opening the door within. Grins stood back and let Harry and Ginny enter, but he refused to let the others enter, despite Harry's claims about their being family.

Bill tugged Ron and Hermione back to the hall to find out about his previous job, and if he could still work there.

****

Harry entered the door, and saw a huge stand filled with parchment stacked under various names; he recognised a few names like Malfoy and Bones. He scanned the same stack and found Potter there too. Grins sat on one of the chairs and Argnook went to the shelf and pulled out the entire bundle of parchments under the name of Potter, while Bircug sat down next to Grins.

Argnook took a few parchments that Bircug passed on to him, and asked Harry for his blood.

"Why?" said Ginny, frowning at the goblins.

"Well, Miss, for Mr. Potter to see the actual will of James and Lily Potter, he needs to prove he is a Potter, and what better way than his blood,"__said Argnook__keeping the piece of parchment out for Harry to drop his blood.

Harry took out his wand and conjured a needle, poked his thumb, and let a drop of blood onto the sheet of parchment that Argnook held out for him. As soon a drop of his blood fell on the parchment, the writings on it appeared and Ginny healed Harry's finger despite his exasperated looks.

Argnook cleared his voice and read out from the parchment,

"_I, James Andrew Potter, son of Andrew Wulfric Potter and Catherine Amelia Potter, in sound health do declare this as my last will. The following vaults and their contents are to be handed over to my wife, Lily Evans Potter, in the case of my death. In case Lily Evans Potter is unwell and/or incapable of handling the vaults (in case of events like death), as given in writing by St. Mungo's; then the Vaults and their contents are to be handled either by Sirius Black and/or Remus Lupin and/or Peter Pettigrew and/or Albus Dumbledore until Harry James Potter is of age._

_The vaults concerned in the above statement are-_

_Potter's Vault:_

_The contents of this vault include:_

_91 78 940 Galleons_

_86 45 689 Sickles_

_4 56 784 Knuts_

_Deeds to: _

_Potter Manor at 48 Godric Hallow_

_Potter Cottage at 16 Godric Hallow_

_A plot at 178 Main Street, Devon_

_A Muggle apartment at 18 Queens Road, London_

_Various trunks of previous Potters_

_Various jewellery (approximately 3 45 000 Galleons, over 100 pieces)_

_Family tapestry_

_Various valuable potions ingredients (dry) and_

_Potter journals. _

_Potter Elf Vault:_

_The contents of the Vault include:_

_1 00 000 Galleons _

_10 000 Sickles_

_10 000 Knuts_

_(The elves usually handle this so that they have what ever is required to keep the Potter properties in liveable conditions.)_

_The Following vault's key is to be given to my son, Harry James Potter in case of my death, regardless of his age._

_Potter Trust Vault:_

_The contents of the vault include:_

_2 90 680 Galleons_

_1 00 980 Sickles_

_98 750 Knuts." _

Harry was stunned. He was not sure what he heard was true or was just a fragment of his imagination. Harry turned to look at Ginny, to confirm what he had heard. She looked equally stunned. Her eyes were huge, and she was staring at the goblins, as if they had grown an extra head.

Argnook then got up to the shelf and brought out another set of files. There was a small envelope addressed to Harry attached to it, which was handed out to him as Bircug asked for more blood. Harry, recognising the handwriting, tore open the letter. There was only a piece of parchment with a note on it, with a chain and dollar in it.

_Harry,_

space

_This dollar belonged to your mother. She gave it to me yesterday, just before they went into hiding. I have no idea how old you are as you read this, and I do not know whether or not your parents are alive. The locket is not very grand, but what makes it the most precious dollar is the pearl. What makes that pearl special is it will never wear out like most other and the shine will never be lost. The only reason for this is that your father and later on your mother had placed some charms on it. This was your father's gift to Lily on their first date. Although they got together in the end of our sixth year, it was not until the first Hogsmeade visit in our seventh year (which got postponed three times and was only in May) did they go out on an official date. Your father placed a charm he had read about in one of the books in Hogwarts. The charm made the pearl warm whenever James was thinking about Lily. It got cold only when he was in mortal danger. Lily never took it off from the day James put it on her, not even for her wedding, when she could have worn more exquisite jewellery. _

_I do hope you find someone one day just the way Lily and James found each other, until then, hold this to your heart. _

_Love_

_Sirus_

space

_P.S: I think Lily is pregnant again. She is so angry all the time. Don't tell anyone this, but they were trying for another child._

Harry looked at the chain and dollar closely, indeed it was very simple, a tiny gold wire held a very tiny ruby and the pearl below that as if it were falling. The chain was very thin and delicate, made out of gold, and Harry could not wait to put it on Ginny.

He looked up to see her, but Ginny was busy studying her nails. She seemed to have been disturbed, but Argnook started reading out the next will.

"_I, Sirius Black, son of Orion Black and Walburga Black, in sound health do declare this as my last will and testament. The following vaults and their contents are to be handed over to my godson, and, in case he is not of age, the vaults will be guarded by James Andrew Potter or Lily Evans Potter or Remus John Lupin or Peter Pettigrew or Albus Dumbledore in case of my death. If Harry is either dead/proclaimed unwell to handle these matters, it will be handed over to Remus John Lupin._

_Black Family Vault:_

_6 93 74 940 Galleons_

_1 96 65 689 Sickles_

_64 56 784 Knuts_

_Deeds to:_

_Number 12, Grimmauld Place_

_Plot no.178, Hogsmeade_

_Various jewellery (approximately 76 45 000 Galleons, over 500 pieces)_

_Other family heirlooms (approximately 98 70 000 Galleons)_

_Sirius Black's Vault:  
62 23 780 Galleons  
6 34 200 Sickles_

_5 87 978 Knuts"_

Harry could not digest this news. He was shocked. He had no idea what to do with all this money, he knew Sirius would want his vault back, but would not want his family vault. Potter's vaults—Harry had no idea what his parents would want and what they would want him to keep. He threw a glance at Ginny, who sat slumped in her chair not looking up. He had never seen her look so miserable.

"Mr. Potter, I want you to sign to confirm taking over charge of all your properties. I will be in touch with you soon for another matter. You will receive an owl later on in the month regarding the other matter. We cannot finish with it now, as the heads of the other branches of Gringotts will have to be present, as it concerns their business too. You will have to make a will after that, but I suggest you start making a list of people who may be your beneficiaries. With so many properties and vaults, you'll also have to give the key other people to handle it as well. I'll owl you a letter containing your will format, if you step up here with Argnook and give him all details of where the owl should be sent," finished Grins leaving no place for arguments.

****

Bill watched his sister walk out of the Hall her forehead creased with worry. He watched with sad eyes as she has walked along with Harry, although she was not looking at him. He remembered wondering if he had lost his sister to a man already during his wedding. He hated himself for not having a problem with Harry, how could he? After Harry had saved his sister, father and brother over the time they had come to know him. How could anyone hate Harry Potter for he was not a person you could feel that way about?

****

"I could not help it, Lils," Petunia started, her eyes filling with tears. "I... I knew he was your child, and he had your eyes, and they haunted me forever. His behaviour and a few mannerisms are so much like you despite him looking exactly like your husband.

"All that was like a slap," Petunia's voice faltered, but she continued. "One second I hated your very existence, and the very next second you were not there. You left. You died. You..." Her voice choked up with her tears and she fell into her sister's embrace.

"Oh Tuney!" Lily sighed. "I always loved you, no matter what you though of me. It did hurt; my big sister hated who I was and was jealous of me. It killed me. I wanted to be just like you, but I was something so very different, and I could never be like you."

"I'm sorry," Petunia whispered, stepping out of her sister's embrace and looking down at her fingers. "For everything I've ever done horrible to you, for everything horrible I let happen to your son; for not being there for you when Mum and Dad died; for blaming you for everything that was wrong."

"Petunia," Lily waited until she looked up, "I wish things were different and...but its not, and I just want to know why you hated me so much? Or as I'd like to think pretended to hate me so much?"

Petunia turned away from her sister, facing the door. "I hated you for dying out on me and hated Harry more because he survived. I read in that letter Dumbledore had left me. You jumped in front of the curse that was meant for him. I blamed him for your death."

Lily's face was etched with anger and horror. "You blamed an innocent baby for my death?" Her voice remained controlled and calm.

Petunia had tears in her eyes but her sister's words were just too hard to face. She let them slip. "Yes," she barely whispered. "I'm not proud of it, but it was all I could think of. Every time I saw his eyes, they reminded me of you, of Dad and even Grandma. So much I had missed in my life because of my stupidity."

Petunia was sobbing by the end of it. Lily went over to her and pulled her into her arms as if she were a small child. _ I can't bare to see her like this, even after she just confessed what she had done to her son._ She pulled her over to the window and settled down on the floor ready to erase the horrible past and create a new future. She had after all been given another chance to life.

****

"James?" Lily whispered, holding her sleeping sister in her lap as she was seated leaning against the wall on the floor.

"Need any help here, Lily?" James asked, giving her a small smile, worry etched on his features as she saw the dried tear tracks on her beautiful face.

She took a deep breath and shook her head, giving him a small smile of her own. "It was not too bad, just some hurt egos and hearts. Not to mention lots of emotional stress," she said as a way of explaining why her sister was sleeping, or why she had swollen red eyes and tear streaks along her cheeks.

James nodded once and pulled out his wand to levitate Petunia.

"Everyone cleared out. Sirius used a good amount of U-No-Poo for that thug you call brother-in-law," James said casually as if he were discussing the weather.

Lily glared at her husband, more tears leaking out.

"Lily..." His shoulders slumped. "I'll set them straight, and only heaven knows why I'll be doing that."

"I want my sister back, James," said Lily, her voice breaking. "Please don't try to ruin my efforts. Harry will be devastated if he knew we did this, after him repeatedly telling us not to."

"Don't play that guilt card with me, Lily," said James, in a cold tone and turning away from his wife's eye, guiding Petunia's body out of the door. "Harry is my son, and you know it as well I do that watching him suffer at their hands, he deserves more than what we have laid out for them."

"We are not the ones to decide what they deserve or not, James."

"Be that as it may be, I'm guilty of having gotten myself killed; I've got a second chance and I'll make the most out of it. No one gets away after treating my son the way they did. I'll spare your sister, simply because she means a lot to you, but I'll be damned it I don't wait until a week to counter effect the U-No-Poo."

He left, and his wife followed him as he guided Petunia's sleeping form to the Portkey waiting in Sirius's hands.

****

"Ginny, are you going to stay there all day, or are you going to come out sometime soon?" asked Bill as he let his head bang against his sister's closed door.

It had been mere hours since they all had returned to the Burrow, and Ginny had not said a word to anyone since they had returned from the Wizarding Bank.

Bill heard some shuffling around the room and then footsteps inching towards the door before it flung open. Bill sighed at the sight that met him. His sister's shoulders were slumped and she looked like she had been thinking for a long time. Her room was a mess; all the contents of her closet were all over her room. Suddenly she flung herself into him and started crying as she clung to him tightly. Bill had no idea how to handle this. He did not want to bother his parents with this, but he could hardly know what to do. He never remembered a time when his sister had cried.

**A/N: I was busy with exams and well real life is sometimes so much fun you just don't want to go away from it. My beta Eric pointed out that, everyone seems to be crying as the story progresses, I'd just like to say wait and watch they just are out of the war. I guess only a few more chapters before a big time jump. Thanks to my beta Eric and Ameli that these chapters are as good as I think they are! It might be a while before I update again, as I'm heading out of town for a week or maybe more.**


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